grão

grão¹ grain

Etymology tree of grão¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin grānum

French grain

Italian grana

Portuguese grana

Italian grano

Portuguese grão

Romanian grâu

Spanish grano

From the same root · grão¹

English gram ← grānum

Latin grānārium ← grānum

Latin grānātus ← grānum

Italian granaio ← grano

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈɡɾɐ̃w̃/, [ˈɡɾɐ̃ʊ̯̃]^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈɡɾɐ̃w̃/^[1]

Forms

grão m (plural grãos)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote grão, and graão is recorded in the 14th century.^[2]

Etymology

The word for “grain” is inherited from Latin grānum (“grain, seed”), written Old Galician-Portuguese grão in the oldest texts.^[3][2][1] The Latin -n- between vowels was lost and left the vowel nasal;^[2] Cunha records the 14th-century spelling Old Galician-Portuguese graão.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician gran, Spanish grano, Catalan gra, French grain, Italian grano and Romanian grâu.^[4][1] Its plural grāna gave a separate feminine noun, grã “scarlet grain, kermes”, in Portuguese as in Spanish and Occitan.^[4]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *grānom and Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm, “what has ripened, grain”.^[5][1] Its cognates include Old Irish grán (“grain”), Lithuanian žìrnis (“pea”) and, in Germanic, the word that became English corn.^[5][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century speak of ũa grand'espiga de grãos carregada / de triigo “a big ear laden with grains of wheat” and say that God fez o grão do millo “made the grain of millet”.^[8][3][2] The first sense is thus the seed of a cereal.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the seed of cereals the word spread to the seeds of other plants and to any small round body: Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 already uses grãos for chickpeas, and Vieira lists grão de mostarda and grão de lentilha.^[9][10] The figurative sense “a tiny amount”, as in um grão de malícia, and the use as a small unit of weight, a quarter of a carat, followed.^[3][11]

Figueiredo's dictionary of 1899 adds the popular sense “testicle” and two slang senses, “rice” and the coin called cruzado novo.^[12] Modern dictionaries add technical senses in photography and printing, for the minute particles that make up an image.^[3][13] Grão alone also means the chickpea, short for grão-de-bico.^[14][15]

The word passed into Macanese as grám.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2][8]
• 14th century – the spelling graão.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin granum.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa records grãos as another name for chickpeas.^[9]
• 1813 – first record of the derivative grainha “grape pip”.^[2]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the slang senses “rice” and the coin cruzado novo.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A grain: the seed of a cereal such as wheat, barley or maize, or of certain legumes such as beans and peas.^[3][11][1]
2. The seed of certain other plants: grão de mostarda.^[3][13]
3. Any very small body, a particle: um grão de pó, um grão de sal.^[3][11][1]
4. (figurative) A tiny amount of something: sem um grão de juízo.^[3][13]
5. (historical) A former unit of weight, a quarter of a carat (about 50 milligrams); also a former small unit of length.^[3][11][1]
6. The chickpea, short for grão-de-bico.^[14][15]
7. (photography, printing) Each of the minute particles or raised points that form an image or the surface of a printing plate.^[3][13]
8. (vulgar) A testicle.^[3][11]

Word family

• grão-de-bico
• grainha

grão² grand, great

Etymology tree of grão²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin grandis

French grand

Italian grande

Portuguese grande

Portuguese grão

Spanish grande

From the same root · grão²

English grandeur ← grandis

Latin grandaevus ← grandis

Latin grandiō ← grandis

Latin pergrandis ← grandis

French grandir ← grand

French grand-mère ← grand

French grand-père ← grand

Spanish grandioso ← grande

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈɡɾɐ̃w̃/, [ˈɡɾɐ̃ʊ̯̃]^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈɡɾɐ̃w̃/^[1]

Forms

grão (feminine grã, masculine plural grãos, feminine plural grãs)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote gran in the 13th century;^[3] grão is recorded from the 14th.^[3] The feminine is grã (as in grã-duquesa).^[1][17]

Etymology

The word for “grand, great” is a clipping from Portuguese grande, used before a noun; the oldest texts write it Old Galician-Portuguese gran.^{[3][18][1][12]} Michaëlis's glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda notes that the short form was used only before nouns of either gender beginning with a consonant.^[19] The full form grande is grandis (“big, great”).^[19]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cantigas use gran constantly before a noun: gran ben “great good”, tan gran cuita “such great sorrow” in Vasco Praga de Sandin, gran pavor and gran pesar in the cantigas d'escarnho of Alfonso X, and Madre do gran Rei “Mother of the great King” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[19] The cantigas d'amigo also use it as an adverb, “very”, in mui gran.^[19]

Semantic evolution

The spelling grão replaced gran from the 14th century.^[3] The adjective became literary: Aurélio quotes Camilo Castelo Branco, E passou assim este grão caso, and Priberam marks it as little used.^[11][15] Today it lives on mainly in titles and compounds such as grão-duque, grão-mestre and grão-vizir.^[1][3]

Timeline

• 13th century – gran in the cantigas.^[3][19]
• 14th century – first record of the spelling grão.^[3]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists it as a shortened form of grande.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary, before a noun) great, grand; the same as grande.^[3][11][15]
2. (in compounds) Grand, in titles of rank: grão-duque, grão-mestre.^[1][3]

Word family

• grão-duque
• grão-ducado
• grão-mestre
• grão-vizir