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guia

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word guia

Confidence
Established
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1400s More words from the 15th century
Ultimate origin
Medieval Latin *guidō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Portuguese guiar
Portuguese guia

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈɡi.ɐ/[1]
  • Portugal: /ˈɡi.ɐ/[1]

Forms

guia m or f by sense (plural guias)[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Portuguese guiar (“to guide”).[2][3][4] Houaiss and Cunha date the noun to the 15th century.[2][5]

The verb is recorded from the 13th century and comes from Medieval Latin *guidō.[6][7][1] Houaiss and Cunha take that word, probably, from Gothic *𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌽 (*widan, “to join”).[6][7] Nascentes explains that the one who guides goes along with the other.[8] The glossary of the Crónica Geral calls the Germanic source uncertain: it follows the Gothic etymology, which Corominas and the Romance etymological dictionary defend, and rejects a Frankish word for “to show”, which Wartburg accepts for some of the Romance forms.[9]

Nascentes compares Italian guida and French guide, and DELPo the noun Old Occitan guida.[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb guiar appears in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (a Virgen que nos guia “the Virgin who guides us”) and in the cantigas of Afonso X.[9] The noun follows in the 15th century; the Livro das tres vertudes, in a witness after 1450, has it.[2][12]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries give both the action and the person: Cardoso (1569) translates the noun with Latin ductus “leading”, Barbosa (1611) with dux “leader”, and Folqman (1755) with both.[13][14][15] Vieira (1871) defines it, for either gender, as a person who leads another and shows the way, with a quotation from António Tenreiro's Itinerário on the guides for crossing a desert.[16]

Figueiredo (1899) has many of the technical senses: a document that goes with goods, the stake of a trained vine, the long flight feathers of birds, the reins of a coach and the title of instructional books.[17] The gender came to divide the senses: the act, the document and the strap are feminine, the person is either, and the book is masculine.[2][1] In Brazil the word also names the kerb of a street, the bead necklace of the Afro-Brazilian religions and the spirit guides of Umbanda.[2]

Timeline

  • 1200s – the verb guiar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[9][7]
  • 1400s – first record of the noun.[2]
  • c. 1450 – guia in the Livro das tres vertudes (witness after 1450).[12]
  • 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has guia “leading”.[13]
  • 1611 – Barbosa uses it for a leader.[14]
  • 1871 – Vieira enters it as a noun of both genders.[16]
  • 1899 – Figueiredo lists the document, the vine stake and the reins.[17]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (feminine) The act of guiding (guiar); direction.[2][18]
  2. (feminine) A document that goes with goods, mail or a person so that they may pass freely; a permit.[2][19]
  3. (feminine) A form used to pay sums due to a public office.[2][3]
  4. (feminine) A long strap for driving or training horses; a rein.[2][18]
  5. (feminine) A leash for an animal (trela).[2][1]
  6. (feminine) The stake that holds up a trained vine.[2]
  7. (feminine) Each end of a moustache.[2][18]
  8. (feminine, Brazil) The kerb of a street (meio-fio).[2][20]
  9. (feminine, Brazil) A necklace of coloured beads worn in the Afro-Brazilian religions, in the colours of an orixá.[2]
  10. (masculine and feminine) A person who leads others and shows the way; a tourist guide.[2][4][1]
  11. (masculine and feminine, figurative) A person or thing that serves as a model.[2][20]
  12. (masculine) A book of instructions; a guidebook.[2][4][1]
  13. (masculine, Brazil) The cowhand who rides at the head of a herd.[2][21]
  14. (masculine, Brazil) In umbanda, a spirit guide that counsels through the mediums.[2]

Usage notes

In Alagoas, Paraíba and Pernambuco o Guia (short for guia eleitoral) is the free political broadcast on radio and television before an election.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 r s t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. guia
  3. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. guia
  4. ^ a b c 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. guia
  5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. guia
  6. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. guiar
  7. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. guiar
  8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. guiar
  9. ^ 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. guiar
  10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 251
  11. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. guia
  12. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. guia
  13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. guia
  14. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. guia
  15. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. guia
  16. ^ a b 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, 942
  17. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 687
  18. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. guia
  19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4818
  20. ^ 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. guia
  21. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. guia
  22. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. guia
Cite this entry

“Guia.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/guia. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·