feliz

Forms

feliz m or f (plural felizes, comparable, comparative mais feliz, superlative o mais feliz or felicíssimo, diminutive felizinho)^[1] Houaiss records filiz in the 13th century and feliz from the 14th; the inherited form was fiiz.^[2][3][1] The poetic felice is also used.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fēlīx (“fruitful; lucky, happy”), taken in the oblique form fēlīcem.^[2][4][1][5] The popular outcome was Old Galician-Portuguese fiiz, found in the Cantigas de Santa Maria; it was later replaced by the form restored after the Latin.^[3][1] Nascentes and Wiktionary therefore call the word semi-learned, and Nascentes's fuller dictionary a literary word, while Aurélio speaks of a popular one.^[6][7][1][8]

Spanish feliz was likewise taken from Latin and is first recorded in Berceo.^[9][10] The inherited outcome survives in Romanian ferice.^[11]

The Latin adjective first meant “fruitful”, of plants and trees, and only later “favoured by the gods, happy”.^[12][13] De Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *fēl(w)ī- (“suckling”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-l(u)-i-, the root of Ancient Greek θῆλυς (thêlus, “female”) and Ancient Greek θηλή (thēlḗ, “nipple”);^[14][1] Wiktionary traces this to *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle”).^[14][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates filiz to the 13th century, from Cunha's index, and Cunha puts feliz in the 14th.^[2][4] Machado's first record is of the 16th century;^[3] Lorenzo cites the Galician Estoria, which calls Arabia a feliz Arabia, and two passages of the Cantigas de Santa Maria with the older fiiz.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the Latin senses “lucky” and “blessed, auspicious”: Folqman (1755) renders it by felix and fortunatus and, of days and years, by faustus and prosper.^[15] Morais (1789) defines it as “endowed with happiness”.^[16] The sense “well devised, well done” (uma ideia feliz, final feliz) is in Figueiredo (1899), and Aulete now puts “contented, glad” first.^[17][18] The noun felicidade is recorded from the 16th century, felicitar from the 18th and felizardo “lucky person” from 1899.^[4]

The word passed into Kabuverdianu as filís and into Macanese as filiz.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – filiz, and fiiz in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the form feliz.^[2][4]
• 15th century – first record of infeliz.^[4]
• 1513 – feliz in the Livro dos Mártires.^[19]
• 1697 – Pereira renders Feliz by Latin felix, faustus and fortunatus.^[20]
• 1789 – Morais defines the word and refers to the variant felice.^[16]
• 1899 – first record of felizardo.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. happy, content, satisfied: está feliz com a casa nova.^[2][18][1]
2. Favoured by luck; fortunate: feliz na escolha do sócio.^[2][8][1]
3. That brings happiness or shows it: um dia feliz.^[21][22]
4. Favourable, propitious.^[2][21]
5. Successful; well devised or well carried out: uma escolha feliz.^[2][8][21]
6. Blessed: de feliz memória.^[18][22]

Word family

• felizmente
• felizardo

Related words

• felicidade
• felicitar
• infeliz
• Latin fēlīx
• Spanish feliz

Usage notes

The word is used in greetings for feasts and anniversaries: feliz Natal, feliz aniversário, feliz Ano Novo.^[23][22] As a man's name, Feliz is the adjective.^[24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. feliz
3. ^ a b c d e 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. feliz
4. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. feliz
5. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. feliz
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. feliz
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 212
8. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. feliz
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 879
10. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. feliz
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3236
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. fēlix
13. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. felix
14. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. feliz
16. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 606
17. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. feliz
18. ^ a b c 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. feliz
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. feliz
20. ^ 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. feliz
21. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. feliz
22. ^ a b c 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. feliz
23. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. feliz
24. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. feliz