fortuna

Forms

fortuna f (plural fortunas)^[1] Medieval texts also write furtuna and fortua, and the 15th century ffortuna.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin fortūna (“chance, luck, fortune; possessions”), already written Old Galician-Portuguese fortuna in the oldest texts.^[2][1][4] Nascentes notes that it came by the learned route, not by inheritance.^[4]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Spanish fortuna, Catalan fortuna, Italian fortuna and French fortune.^[5][1]

The Latin noun is derived from fors (“chance, luck”), through a u-stem *fortu- and an adjective *fortūno- “lucky”.^[6] De Vaan connects the noun with ferō (“to bear, carry”), though the shift from “carrying” to “chance” is not obvious and Ernout and Meillet reject the link.^[6] Wiktionary traces the word to Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 14th century from Cunha's medieval slips, and Cunha has it from the 15th.^[2][3] Lorenzo's chronology quotes Fernão Lopes in 1405, com ffortuna do tempo “by chance of the weather”, and a text of 1445 has por furtuna de mar “by peril of the sea”.^[7] The first sense was chance or fate, good or bad.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From chance and destiny the word narrowed to good luck and success, and in the plural of Latin it had already meant riches.^[2][8] The old phrase fortuna do mar named the risks of a sea voyage, and Morais (1813) records correr fortuna “to run a risk”.^[9] The REW observes that in Portuguese, as in the other Mediterranean languages, the word came to stand as a euphemism for a storm.^[5]

The sense “wealth” was long resisted: Silva Bastos (1912) and Figueiredo (1899) call it an unnecessary Gallicism, and the original Caldas Aulete notes that it was condemned.^[10][11][12] Today it is the main sense in Brazil, together with “a large sum of money”.^[2][12][1] In Minas Gerais fortuna is also a plant, the same as coirama.^[2]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records, also spelt furtuna.^[2]
• 1405 – com ffortuna do tempo in Fernão Lopes.^[7]
• 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437) uses fortuna.^[13]
• 1445 – por furtuna de mar “by peril of the sea”.^[7]
• 15th century – first record of the derivative afortunado.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary enters fortuna with Latin fortuna.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes Fortuna as a goddess the ancients held to be the cause of all events, good and bad.^[15]
• 1899 – Figueiredo calls the sense “riches” an unnecessary Gallicism.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (mythology) Fortune, the goddess the ancients believed ruled good and ill luck.^[2][16]
2. The force thought to decide success or failure; chance: Achou o caminho por pura fortuna.^[2][17]
3. destiny, fate: má fortuna.^[2][18]
4. Good luck, happiness, success.^[2][19]
5. Bad luck, adversity.^[2][19]
6. wealth: the whole of the goods and money that a person, family or firm owns.^[2][1]
7. A very large sum of money: Pagou uma fortuna pelo carro.^[2][19]
8. (Minas Gerais) The plant Kalanchoe pinnata, also called coirama.^[2]

Word family

• afortunado
• afortunar
• desafortunado
• fortunado
• fortunoso
• infortunado

Related words

• fortuito
• infortúnio
• Latin fors
• Spanish fortuna

Usage notes

Fazer fortuna means to grow rich, and something made de fortuna is improvised in haste.^[2][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fortuna
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fortuna
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fortuna
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3458
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c 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. fortuna
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fortune
9. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 52
10. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. fortuna
11. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. fortuna
12. ^ a b 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. fortuna
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. fortuna
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fortuna
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fortuna
16. ^ 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. fortuna
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fortuna
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. fortuna
19. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4423