gordo

Forms

gordo (feminine gorda, masculine plural gordos, feminine plural gordas, comparable, comparative mais gordo, superlative o mais gordo or gordíssimo, diminutive gordinho, augmentative gordão)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gurdus (“dull, stupid; a dolt”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gordo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin word meant a slow-witted person;^[4][5] Nascentes notes that in Portuguese its sense moved to the body, and Corominas traces the step from “blunt” through “thick” to “fat”.^[4][5]

The same Latin word is Galician gordo, Spanish gordo, Catalan gord and French gourd (“numb, stiff”).^[6][1][7]

Quintilian had heard that the word came from Spain, and the OLD allows an Iberian origin.^[8][1] De Vaan finds no proof of this and derives it from Proto-Italic *gʷordos (“heavy, stubborn”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷr̥dos, comparing Ancient Greek βραδύς (bradús, “slow”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a nickname and a personal name the word appears in Latin charters long before the Portuguese texts: et mater mea Gorda in 1034 and Pelagio Gordo in 1105.^[10] Cunha dates the adjective in Portuguese to the 13th century.^[3] In the Crónica Troiana it describes a stout body, the neck and the belly made fat (faça o pescoço et o uentre gordo), and a cantiga says of a woman that she is neither fat nor thin (nen é gorda nen magra).^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders the word with Latin pinguis and obesus.^[12] Bluteau first applies it to animals and their meat.^[13] Morais (1813) records domingo gordo, the Sunday before Lent, and Houaiss and Porto Editora still give the sense “belonging to Carnival” (domingo gordo, terça-feira gorda).^[14][2][15] Figueiredo (1899) adds the figurative senses “fertile” (of land) and “considerable”, and the phrase letras gordas for scant learning.^[16] In Brazil the hearts and spades of a pack of cards are called gordas.^[2] The word passed into Kristang as godru and into Papiamentu.^[1]

Timeline

• 1034 – Gorda as a woman's name in a Latin charter.^[10]
• 13th century – first record in Portuguese.^[3]
• 14th century – first records of gordura and engordar.^[3]
• 1513 – the Livro dos Mártires uses gordo.^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary lists gordo.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais records domingo gordo.^[14]
• 1881 – first records of gorducho and engorda.^[3]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the senses “fertile” and “considerable”.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. fat, plump; having much body fat: um gato muito gordo.^[2][1][18]
2. Containing fat; greasy, oily; of milk, whole: leite gordo.^[2][1][15]
3. Thick, bulky; large, considerable: uma gorda herança.^[2][16]
4. Of land, fertile.^[2][16]
5. Of the last days before Lent, belonging to carnaval: sábado gordo.^[2][15]
6. (Brazil) In cards, of hearts and spades.^[2]
7. (printing) bold.^[2]

Noun

1. A fat person.^[2][1][19]
2. Fat; the fatty part of meat.^[2][20]

Word family

• desengordurar
• engorda
• engordar
• engordurar
• gorducho
• gordura
• gordurento
• gorduroso
• bicho-gordo
• gordacho
• gordal
• gordice
• gordofobia
• gordote

Related words

• Latin gurdus
• Spanish gordo

Usage notes

As a surname, Gordo was first a nickname.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. gordo
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. gordo
4. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. gordo
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 173
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3920
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. gourd
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. gurdus
9. ^ 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. gurdus
10. ^ 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. gordo
11. ^ 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. gordo
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gordo
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gordo
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 92
15. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4740
16. ^ a b c d Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 672
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. gordo
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. gordo
19. ^ 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. gordo
20. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. gordo
21. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. gordo