guardião

Forms

guardião m (plural guardiães or guardiões, feminine guardiã, feminine plural guardiãs)^[1] Old forms are guardião and guardão in the 13th century, guardian in the 14th, guardiom and guardiam in the 15th.^[2] Galician-Portuguese documents have guardian in 1326 and gardian in 1395.^[3] The plural is guardiães or guardiões, the feminine guardiã.^[1][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin guardianus, which Houaiss explains as a romanisation of Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wardjan), the accusative of 𐍅𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰 (wardja, “watchman, sentry”).^[5][6] Wiktionary and the DLP derive the Portuguese word straight from the Gothic accusative, and Aurélio and Nascentes from a romanised form of it.^[1][7][8][9] Cunha calls the source a Latin wardianus, derived from a Germanic verb.^[2] Older dictionaries took it from elsewhere: Vieira from French gardien, Michaelis from Spanish guardián.^[10][11]

The Spanish word and Italian guardiano have the same origin.^[5][12]

The Gothic noun is recorded only in the accusative plural 𐍅𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽𐍃 (wardjans), in Matthew 27:65; it is derived with a suffix from the Germanic noun *warda- (“guard”), the source of weard and wart.^[13][14] Feist and Lehmann connect it with *wer- (“to heed, watch over”).^[13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cantiga 119 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria tells how a man enviou polo guardião / e fillou del pẽedença “sent for the guardian and received penance from him”.^[3] Mettmann glosses the word as the superior of a convent.^[3] Houaiss and Cunha also date the word to the 13th century.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word was the title of the superior of a Franciscan house: a document of 1326 names frey P. de Chauin guardian de Ribadeu.^[3] Morais (1789) gives only this sense.^[15] Vieira added the general sense “one who guards a person or thing” and a naval rank, the petty officer next below the boatswain.^[10] Figueiredo (1899) records the popular sense “bodyguard” and a Brazilian climbing plant of the gourd family.^[16] In 20th-century Brazil the word came to mean a goalkeeper, and video games use it for the strong enemy at the end of a level.^[5][8][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – guardião in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• 1326 – guardian de Ribadeu in a Galician document.^[3]
• 1395 – gardian in a Galician document.^[3]
• 15th century – the spellings guardiom and guardiam.^[2]
• 1589 – guardian in a private letter.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais defines the word as the superior of a Franciscan convent.^[15]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira records the general sense and the naval rank.^[10]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the senses “bodyguard” and the Brazilian plant.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. The superior of certain religious houses, especially of Franciscan convents.^[5][8][7]
2. One who guards and protects something or someone; a guardian, custodian: o guardião da memória da aldeia.^[5][7][1]
3. (informal) A bodyguard.^[5][6][4]
4. (sport) A goalkeeper.^[5][7][6] Houaiss marks the sense as Brazilian.^[5]
5. (nautical, historical) A petty officer in charge of handling the ship, next below the boatswain.^[5][7][10]
6. (Brazil, botany) A climbing plant of the gourd family, the abóbora-do-mato.^[5][8]
7. (video games) A boss, a strong enemy that must be beaten to advance.^[1]

Related words

• guarda
• guardar
• Spanish guardián
• Italian guardiano

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 Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. guardião
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. guardião
4. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. guardião
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. guardião
6. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4811
7. ^ a b c d e 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. guardião
8. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. guardião
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. guardião
10. ^ a b c d Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 938
11. ^ 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. guardião
12. ^ 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. guardián
13. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill
14. ^ a b Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill
15. ^ 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, 74
16. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 685
17. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. guardião