futuro

Forms

futuro m (uncountable)^[1] Houaiss and Cunha record the spelling foturo in the 16th century.^[2][3] As an adjective it has the feminine futura and the plurals futuros, futuras.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin futūrus (“about to be”), taken over in learned use.^[2][4][3][1] Houaiss derives the noun from the neuter futūrum (“what is to come”), the adjective used as a noun.^[2][4][3][1] The Latin word is the future participle of sum (“to be”), formed on the stem of the perfect fuī, not on that of the present.^[5][6] Wiktionary traces this stem to Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become, grow”), the root of φύω (phúō) and be.^[1]

The same learned word is Galician futuro, Spanish futuro, Catalan futur, French futur and Italian futuro.^[1][7] In French it is recorded from 1219.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the prose texts of the CTA corpus is the Vida de Santo Elói of 1491.^[8] Houaiss puts the noun in the 15th century, in the sense “the time that follows the present”, and Cunha dates the noun to 1572.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From “time to come” the noun came to mean what that time holds for someone: fate, prospects, livelihood.^[2][9] Morais's dictionary of 1789 has only the adjective “that is to be”; the edition of 1813 adds the noun “the time to come”, quoting João de Barros, and the grammatical sense, the verb form that refers to a time to come.^[10][11] Informally o futuro is the bridegroom-to-be, as the girl's family speaks of him.^[2][12] In the 20th century economics added futuros, contracts for later delivery.^[2] Derivatives followed: the verb futurar “to conjecture, foresee” is first listed by Caldas Aulete in 1881, and futurismo and futurista date from the 20th century.^[13][3]

Timeline

• 1491 – first record in the CTA prose texts, in the Vida de Santo Elói.^[8]
• 16th century – the spelling foturo.^[2][3]
• 1572 – Cunha's date for the noun “time to come”.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais lists futuro as an adjective, “that has to be”.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais's 2nd edition adds the noun and its grammatical sense.^[11]
• 1881 – Caldas Aulete lists the derived verb futurar.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The future: the time that comes after the present: Ninguém sabe o que o futuro nos reserva.^[2][12][1]
2. What lies ahead for a person or thing; fate, destino, prospects: um negócio sem futuro.^[2][14][15]
3. One's future livelihood and welfare: Trabalha para garantir o futuro dos netos.^[2][9]
4. (informal) The man a woman is going to marry; fiancé, noivo.^[2][16][17]
5. (grammar) The future tense, especially the futuro do presente.^[2][12][1]
6. (economics, in the plural) futures: speculative purchases and sales on an exchange for later delivery and payment.^[2]

Adjective

1. That is to come; vindouro: as gerações futuras.^[2][17][15]
2. That someone will be: o futuro presidente da câmara.^[2][12]

Word family

• futurar
• futurismo
• futurista
• futuroso
• futuramente

Related words

• porvir
• Latin futūrus
• Spanish futuro

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. futuro
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. futuro
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. futuro
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. futūrus
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. futur
7. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. futuro
8. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. futuro
9. ^ 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. futuro
10. ^ 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, 646
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 71
12. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. futuro
13. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. futurar
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. futuro
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. futuro
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. futuro
17. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4546