fogo

Forms

fogo m (plural fogos, metaphonic)^[1] The singular has closed /o/ and the plural fogos open /ɔ/.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”), written Old Galician-Portuguese fogo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] It is the popular outcome of the Latin word, and foco is its learned doublet.^[2][1] In Latin the word meant the hearth; it was used in the sense of ignis (“fire”) from the imperial period, at least from the 4th century.^[5][6]

The same Latin word is Galician fogo, Spanish fuego, Catalan foc, Occitan fuòc, French feu, Italian fuoco and Romanian foc.^[1][7]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain, and de Vaan finds no convincing etymology: a link with fax (“torch”) is impossible in form, and Hamp's explanation of the Latin word as a back-formation from foculus (“small stove”) runs into chronological problems.^[8] Wiktionary records comparisons with բոց (bocʻ, “flame”), with *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”) and with *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters of 994 and 998 already have the Romance spelling: et inde in fogo lopare and pro fogo que cedarunt et fecerunt damno “for the fire that they set and did harm with”.^[9][2] In the 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria the word means fire, including the fire of hell (fog'infernal) and the flames of Mount Etna, and it names a disease, fogo de San Marçal or mal do fogo.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use fogo de San Marçal and fogo salvage for a skin disease with blisters.^[9][10] From the sense “hearth” came “dwelling, household”: in 1340 the fogo or paga dos fogos was a tax paid by every householder of Chaves.^[11][2] The Spanish word has the same sense, which DCECH calls common to the western Romance languages.^[6]

Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) render the word by Latin ignis.^[12][13] Bluteau derives it from Greek phôs “light” or, as others held, from focus.^[14] Figurative senses (brilliance, ardour, passion, creative inspiration), the gunfire of firearms and the command fogo! all go with the word today, and Brazilian Portuguese adds “drunkenness” and “sugar-cane spirit”.^[2] The island of Fogo in Cape Verde is named after the fire of its volcano.^[15]

Timeline

• 994 – a Latin charter has in fogo lopare, and one of 998 pro fogo.^[9]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use fogo for fire and in the disease name fogo de San Marçal.^[9][3]
• 1340 – fogo, a hearth tax of Chaves.^[11]
• c. 1430 – first record in the CTA prose corpus, in the Horto do Esposo.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders it as Latin ignis.^[12]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau discusses its etymology.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. fire: the heat and light given off by a burning substance; lume.^[2][17][1]
2. A flame; a blaze or incêndio.^[2][1]
3. A place where a fire is made: a hearth, lareira or stove.^[2][17]
4. A dwelling, a household.^[2][1]
5. The firing of guns: Recuaram sob fogo cerrado.^[2][1]
6. Death at the stake; fogueira.^[2]
7. (figurative) Brilliance; ardour, passion or creative inspiration; sexual excitement.^[2][1]
8. A lighter or match: Tens fogo?^[2][1]
9. (colloquial) A tense situation;^[1][18] (Brazil, informal) someone or something hard to deal with.^[1][18]
10. (Brazil, informal) drunkenness; sugar-cane spirit, cachaça.^[2]
11. (in the plural, fogos) fireworks, fogo de artifício.^[2][1]

Interjection

1. (military) The command to shoot: fogo!^[2][19][1]
2. A cry raising the alarm at a fire.^[2]
3. (Portugal, colloquial) An exclamation of surprise, annoyance or pain.^[19][1]

Word family

• afogueado
• esfoguear
• fogacho
• fogagem
• fogal
• fogão
• fogareiro
• fogaréu
• fogoso
• foguista
• refogar
• refogado
• enfogar

Related words

• focar
• foco
• fogueira
• Latin focus
• Galician fogo
• Spanish fuego

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fogo
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fogo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fogo
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. feu
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 968
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. focus
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. focus
9. ^ 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. fogo
10. ^ 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. fogo
11. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 469
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fogo
13. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fogo
14. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fogo
15. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. fogo
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. fogo
17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fogo
18. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. fogo
19. ^ 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. fogo