foder

Forms

foder (first-person singular present fodo, first-person singular preterite fodi, past participle fodido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin futuō (“to have sex with (a woman)”), written Old Galician-Portuguese foder in the oldest texts.^[2][1][3] Houaiss and Aurélio start from a popular reshaping of the classical verb, in Vulgar Latin, as a verb of the second conjugation, which the Portuguese infinitive in -er continues.^[2][4]

The same Latin verb is Galician foder, Spanish joder (older Old Spanish hoder and foder), Catalan fotre, French foutre, Italian fottere and Romanian fute.^[5][6][1] In Spanish the form with f- is recorded in the 13th century, in the Fuero de Usagre and other texts.^[7]

The Latin verb is recorded from Catullus on, in Horace, Martial and inscriptions.^[8][9] Its origin is uncertain: de Vaan considers a derivation from a root -fūt- (“to strike”), through a noun in ⟨-tu-⟩, and reports Romain Garnier's alternative, a noun “capacity to ejaculate” from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰew- (“to pour”).^[9] Wiktionary also traces it, with doubt, to *bʰew- (“to hit”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb appears in the satirical cantigas d'escarnho of the 13th century, both for sexual intercourse and, figuratively, for doing someone harm or robbing them: one troubadour tells a man that it is no wonder others sleep with his wife, since they also foden-vos do aver “fleece you of your goods”.^[10][2] The same poems use the infinitive as a noun, “fornication”, and the participle fodido.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Vieira's dictionary of 1871–1874 enters the verb as an obscene popular word for intercourse with a woman, and the original Caldas Aulete adds the figurative senses “to deceive”, “to harm” and “to spoil”, and the reflexive “to come to grief”.^[12][13] In Brazil the reflexive also came to mean “not to care”, and the subjunctive foda-se became an interjection of anger, contempt or indifference.^[2][4] European dictionaries record foda-se! as an exclamation of surprise, impatience or indignation.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – the cantigas d'escarnho use the verb, the noun foder and the participle fodido.^[10][11][2]
• 1620 – the form foderes in a private letter.^[16]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira's dictionary enters it as an obscene popular term.^[12]
• 1975 – the first Aurélio labels it chulo “vulgar”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (vulgar) To have sexual intercourse (with); to fuck.^[2][14][1]
2. (vulgar, figurative) To ruin or do serious harm to someone or something;^[2][3][1] (reflexive) to come off badly: Se não estudares, vais-te foder no exame.^[2][3][1]
3. (Brazil, vulgar, reflexive) Not to care, to pay no attention.^[2][4]
4. (vulgar, interjection) foda-se (plural fodam-se), expressing anger, contempt, surprise or indifference.^[2][14][15]

Word family

• foda
• foda-se
• fodido
• fodilhão

Related words

• Latin futuō
• Spanish joder
• French foutre

Usage notes

Wiktionary notes that the verb is not related to Latin fodiō (“to dig”).^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. foder
3. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. foder
4. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. foder
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. futuere
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. futuere
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 522
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. foder
11. ^ 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. foder
12. ^ a b 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, 714
13. ^ 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. foder
14. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4372
15. ^ a b 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. foder
16. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. foder
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 663