fedor

Forms

fedor m (plural fedores)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin foetor (“stench”), written Old Galician-Portuguese fedor in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary derives it from the accusative fētōrem, and the OLD records the Latin variants fētor and faetor.^[1][5] Nascentes describes the word as semi-learned.^[6]

The same Latin word is Spanish hedor.^[4]

The Latin noun is formed from foeteō (“to stink”) with the suffix -or.^[5] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic forms meaning “smoking, smelly” and to Proto-Indo-European *dʰuoh₂-i- (“to smoke”), comparing Old Irish and Hittite words for smoke.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 14th century.^[2][3] In the CTA its first record is in a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum kept in Santiago de Compostela, a witness of 1380–1425.^[8] The Crónica Troiana says of the dead that they lay so rotten that they gave off a stench (jazian ja tan podridos que dauan de ssy hun… fedor).^[9]

Semantic evolution

The meaning “bad smell” has not changed since the medieval texts.^[9][2] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders the word with Latin foetor, and Pereira's of 1697 adds putor.^[10][11] Morais (1813) defines it simply as a bad smell, and Vieira quotes it from Francisco de Moraes's Palmeirim de Inglaterra.^[12][13]

In north-eastern Brazil fedor is also the name of a card game in which the player left holding the last card loses and is called the fedorento “stinker”.^[2][14] Brazilian dialect surveys record it for body odour, especially under the arms.^[15]

Timeline

• 1300s – first records, according to Houaiss and Cunha.^[2][3]
• 1380–1425 – fedor in a Flos Sanctorum fragment of Santiago de Compostela.^[8]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary lists Fedor.^[10]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro gives three Latin equivalents.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais defines it as a bad smell.^[12]
• 1899 – Figueiredo derives it from Latin fœtor.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stench, a strong, nauseating smell: O fedor do esgoto subia pela janela.^{[2][17][18][1]}
2. (north-eastern Brazil, games) A card game like burro, in which the players lay down pairs and the one left with the last card loses.^[2][14][19]

Word family

• fedorento

Related words

• feder
• fétido
• fedentina
• fetidez
• Latin foetor
• Spanish hedor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fedor
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. feder
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3410
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fedor
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. fedor
9. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. fedor
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fedor
11. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fedor
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 9
13. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 620
14. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. fedor
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. fedor
16. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 605
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. fedor
18. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. fedor
19. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. fedor