Etymologically
Log in

imperador

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word imperador

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1258–1261 spelt emperador More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin imperator
Ultimate origin
Latin imperō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin parō
Italian parare
French parade
English parade
Portuguese parar
Spanish parar
English pare
Latin imperō
Latin imperātor
Portuguese imperador
Romanian împărat
Spanish emperador
French empereur
From the same root
Latin apparō ← parō
Latin disparō ← parō
Latin parābilis ← parō
Latin parātus ← parō
Latin praeparō ← parō
Latin reparō ← parō
Latin sēparō ← parō
Spanish parada ← parō
Portuguese aparar ← parar
Latin imperābiliter ← imperō
Latin imperātrīx ← imperō
Latin imperitō ← imperō
Latin imperium ← imperō
Latin imperātōrius ← imperātor

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ĩ.pe.ɾaˈdoʁ/, [ĩ.pe.ɾaˈdoh][1]
  • São-Paulo: /ĩ.pe.ɾaˈdoɾ/[1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /ĩ.pe.ɾaˈdoʁ/, [ĩ.pe.ɾaˈdoχ][1]
  • Caipira: /ĩ.pe.ɾaˈdoɻ/[1]

Forms

imperador m (plural imperadores, feminine imperatriz, feminine plural imperatrizes)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin imperātor (“commander; emperor”), written Old Galician-Portuguese emperador or Old Galician-Portuguese enperador in the oldest texts.[2][3][1] The modern form is a remodelling of the old one on the Latin spelling.[4][5][1] The old form, still used by Camões, remained in popular speech.[4][5][1]

The same Latin word gave Galician emperador, Spanish emperador, Catalan emperador, French empereur, Italian imperatore and Romanian împărat.[6][1] The REW notes that the word and the idea survived in the Eastern Roman Empire but were brought back in the West only by the imperial coronation of Charlemagne.[6] The Latin noun is formed from imperō (“to command”) with the agent suffix -tor.[7][1] At first it was a military title, given by the soldiers to a victorious general and confirmed by the Senate, and with the standing army it became the title of the head of state.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A text of 1258–1261 speaks of what was owed do emperador et dos Reys “from the emperor and the kings” and of a priuilegio do Emperador “privilege of the emperor”.[3] The Cantigas de Santa Maria call Julian emperador cruel and speak of the enperador Nero.[3]

Semantic evolution

The form emperador was usual through the Middle Ages and the 16th century: the Flos Sanctorum (witness 1380–1425) has it hundreds of times, Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 heads the word so, and a letter of 1542 writes ẽmperador.[8][9][10] Imperador appears in the Livro dos Mártires of 1513, and Vieira (1871–1874) heads the word so, noting that among moderns it means the monarch of a great state and often implies absolute rule.[11][12] In Brazil it was the title of Pedro I and Pedro II.[13]

In the Azores and Brazil the imperador do Divino is the child or adult chosen to preside over the festivities of the Holy Spirit.[2][14][15] Figueiredo (1899) records the sense “steward of a church feast” on Pico.[2][14][15] Zoology applied the name to a deep-sea fish, the alfonsino, and in Brazil to the giant moth Thysania agrippina.[2][15][1]

Timeline

  • 1258–1261 – emperador in a Galician-Portuguese text.[3]
  • 13th century – emperador and enperador in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[3][2]
  • 1380–1425 – the Flos Sanctorum fragment of Santiago de Compostela uses emperador.[8]
  • 1513 – imperador in the Livro dos Mártires.[11]
  • 1542 – a private letter writes ẽmperador.[10]
  • 1569 – Cardoso heads the word emperador.[9]
  • 1572 – Camões still writes emperador in Os Lusíadas.[4]
  • 1899 – Figueiredo records the Azorean sense “steward of a church feast”.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. One who rules or commands.[2][16]
  2. An emperor, the supreme sovereign of an empire (império): o imperador do Japão.[2][17][15]
  3. (history) The title of the holder of supreme power in the Roman Empire after Augustus.[15]
  4. (Azores, Brazil) The person who presides over the festivities of the Holy Spirit.[2][15]
  5. (Portugal) The alfonsino (Beryx decadactylus), a reddish deep-sea fish; in Espírito Santo, another fish, Priacanthus arenatus.[2][1]
  6. (Brazil) A very large grey moth, Thysania agrippina.[2][17]

Word family

  • mariposa-imperador

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. imperador
  3. ^ a b c d e 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. emperador
  4. ^ a b c d Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 274
  5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. imperador
  6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4305
  7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. imperātor
  8. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. emperador
  9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. emperador
  10. ^ a b 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. imperador
  11. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. imperador
  12. ^ 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, 1037
  13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. imperador
  14. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 731
  15. ^ a b c d e f 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. imperador
  16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. imperador
  17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. imperador

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Imperador.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/imperador. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·