fiel

Forms

fiel m or f (plural fiéis)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fidēlis (“trustworthy, faithful”), written Old Galician-Portuguese fiel in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin adjective is formed from fidēs (“faith, trust”) with the suffix -ēlis.^[1][4]

The same Latin word is Galician fiel, Asturian fiel, Spanish fiel, Occitan fidèl, Old French feel and Italian fedele.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century have the adjective in un monge bõo, cast' e mui fiel “a good monk, chaste and very faithful”, and use it as a noun for the Virgin as a guarantor: Fiel bõo tenno “I have a good surety”.^[6][2] A charter of 1276 asks men to be uassalos fieles “loyal vassals” to the abbot, and one of 1278 speaks of the fiéés de nostro señor, the faithful of the Lord.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Lorenzo's chronology dates the noun to 1152 in the sense “help”, the religious sense “believer” to the 14th–15th century, and the office of a fiel to the 15th.^[6] In the Crónica Geral a fiel is a person entrusted with a disputed matter until the case was decided, an overseer of public services, or the judge of a judicial duel; the modern “faithful, believer” is there too.^[6] Morais (1789) adds os fieis defuntos “the faithful departed”, those who died in the communion of the Church, and memoria fiel “a memory that does not fail”.^[7] Figueiredo (1899) records the noun for an employee who keeps goods, papers or money, an assistant treasurer, and as old usage for arbitrators.^[8] Houaiss adds the nautical senses and, in Rio Grande do Sul, the leather loop at the end of a whip handle.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 13th century – fiel in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[6][2]
• 1276 – uassalos fieles in a charter.^[6]
• 1416 – fiel in the Vida do Cativo Monge Confesso.^[10]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it with Latin fidus and fidelis.^[11]
• 1572 – first record of the derivative fidelidade.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais records os fieis defuntos.^[7]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the noun for a keeper of goods and an assistant treasurer.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. loyal, faithful; keeping one's word and not betraying a trust; of an animal, devoted to its owner.^[2][12][1]
2. Faithful to one's partner, having no other lover.^[2][12]
3. Honest (honesto), upright: um empregado fiel.^[2][12]
4. Believing, having faith (fé);^[2][12] (religion) professing a religion.^[2][12]
5. Constant (constante), steadfast in one's principles, habits or tastes: fiel às suas ideias.^[2][12]
6. That does not fail, reliable: memória fiel.^[2][7]
7. accurate, true to the facts or to a model: uma tradução fiel.^[2][1]

Noun

1. A believer, a follower of a religion;^[2][1][8] (in the plural) the faithful, a church's members.^[2][1][8]
2. An employee in charge of goods, documents, money or valuables; an assistant treasurer (tesoureiro).^[13][8][14]
3. (nautical) A sailor in charge of a particular store or service on a ship.^[2]
4. (Rio Grande do Sul) The leather loop at the end of a relho or rebenque, through which the hand is passed.^[2][9]

Word family

• fielmente

Related words

• fidelidade
• fé
• infiel
• fido
• Latin fidēlis

Usage notes

The fiel of a balance, the needle or tongue that shows whether the beam is level (fiel da balança), is a separate noun, recorded from the 16th century.^[2] Houaiss takes it from Spanish fiel de la balanza (1490), which Corominas explains from Latin filum “thread”, used for this pointer by Isidore of Seville: in the phrase fil de la balanza the old form fil was confused by folk etymology with the adjective fiel.^[2][15][16] Figueiredo had derived it from fio “thread”.^[8] Figuratively it means a guiding principle.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fiel
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fiel
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. fidēlis
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 215
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. fiel
7. ^ a b c 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, 614
8. ^ a b c d e f Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. fiel
9. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. fiel
10. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. fiel
11. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fiel
12. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fiel
13. ^ 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. fiel
14. ^ 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. fiel
15. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fiel
16. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 888