homem

Forms

homem m (plural homens)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote omem, homem, omẽe, homẽe, ome and home; the plural was omees or homees.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin homo (“human being, man”), continued from the accusative hominem, and was written Old Galician-Portuguese omẽe, Old Galician-Portuguese ome and Old Galician-Portuguese home in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes derives it through the old form homẽe, and Wiktionary takes the shorter medieval form as a reduction of the longer one.^[4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician home, Spanish hombre, Catalan home, French homme, Italian uomo and Romanian om.^[5][1] Old Spanish has uemne about 950, in the Glosas Emilianenses.^[6]

Old Latin still had the stem with ⟨e⟩, hemō, quoted in the accusative in Paulus's epitome of Festus.^[7][1] It comes from *hemō and Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰm̥mṓ (“earthling”), a derivative of *dʰéǵʰōm (“earth”), which also gave Latin humus (“ground”).^[1] De Vaan likewise reconstructs a Proto-Indo-European word for “earthling, human” and gives as cognates Old Irish duine, Lithuanian žmogus and Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰 (guma).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, 1152 (spelt omem), is taken from Machado.^[2] Lorenzo's chronology quotes the testament of Afonso II of 1214, aos oméés d'ordin “to the men of the religious orders”, then cõ homĩis buus “with good men” in 1242–1252 and algũ ome “any man” in 1260.^[8] In these texts the word already means a man or person, and in the phrase homens bons the respected men of a place.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval language home or homem was also an indefinite pronoun, “one, someone”, like French on: the Crónica Troiana has aly podera home veer “there one could see”, notarial texts of Noia use it so until the 15th century, and Viterbo quotes Rui de Pina's chronicle for it.^[9][5][10] Viterbo also records homem for a servant or dependant, homem do Bispo, homem d'El-Rei, in documents of the 12th to 14th centuries, and homem de rua for a townsman.^[10] The troubadours used home nado in negative sentences for “nobody” and home for a suitor.^[11][12]

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines the word as the rational creature, and collects proverbs such as Homem morto, naõ ganha soldo.^[13] Popular speech uses it for a husband or lover.^[14][15] As a surname, Homem was at first a nickname for a man's physical or moral qualities.^[16]

Timeline

• 1152 – Houaiss's first date, spelt omem, from Machado.^[2]
• 1211 – the spelling homem.^[2]
• 1214 – oméés in the testament of Afonso II.^[8]
• 1258 – omem in the Inquisitiones, and the plural omees.^[17][2]
• 1345 – home “male, man” in a notarial text of Noia.^[9]
• c. 1430 – used in the Horto do Esposo (manuscript of 1390–1437).^[18]
• 1611 – Barbosa renders it with Latin homo and homem varão with vir.^[19]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives a long article with proverbs.^[13]
• 1798–1799 – Viterbo records homem “servant” in documents of the 12th–14th centuries.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The human being as a species, Homo sapiens, a primate with a large brain, upright posture and articulate language.^[2][20]
2. (often capitalised) Humankind, the human race: a evolução do homem.^[2][1]
3. A person, a human being.^[1][14]
4. A male human, especially an adult one: Já é um homem feito.^[2][1]
5. A man of courage, strength and determination: Ele foi homem bastante para assumir o erro.^[2][15]
6. (informal) Husband or male lover: o meu homem.^[14][15][1]
7. (vocative) Used to address a man with impatience: Ó homem, despacha-te!^[1]

Adjective

1. Behaving as is expected of a man; manly.^[20][1]

Word family

• homenzinho
• homenzarrão
• homão
• homem-bom
• homem-bala
• homem-sanduíche

Related words

• homicida
• homicídio
• hominídeo
• homúnculo
• humanidade
• humano
• lobisomem
• homenagem
• Latin homo
• Galician home
• Spanish hombre

Usage notes

Bluteau also records the Homem as a river in Entre Douro e Minho that runs into the Cávado.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. homem
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. homem
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. homem
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4170
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 379
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. omee
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. home
10. ^ a b c Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 35
11. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. home
12. ^ 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. homem
13. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. homem
14. ^ a b c 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. homem
15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. homem
16. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. homem
17. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. homem
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. homem
19. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. homem
20. ^ 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. homem