infante

infante¹ child; prince

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ĩˈfɐ̃.t͡ʃi/^[1]
• Portugal: /ĩˈfɐ̃.tɨ/^[1]

Forms

infante m (plural infantes, feminine infanta, feminine plural infantas)^[1] The old texts write infante, ifante, iffante and yfante.^[2][1] Houaiss also records iffanta in c. 1471–c. 1536.^[2]

Etymology

The word for the child and the prince is inherited from Latin īnfāns (“not speaking; small child”), written Old Galician-Portuguese infante and Old Galician-Portuguese ifante in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is formed from in- (“not”) and fāns, the present participle of for (“to speak”).^[2][1] Wiktionary and Nascentes treat the word as learned, and Nascentes says that the archaic form was remade.^[1][5]

The same Latin word is Galician infante, Spanish infante, Italian infante and French enfant.^[1][6] In Spain and Portugal it came to mean a young nobleman in the 12th century and then the son of a king in the 13th, as Corominas shows for Spanish.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters use infantes for young noblemen as early as 982, and the feminine infanta and infante for princesses in 1107 and 1112 (ipsa infante domna Tarasia).^[4] The first Portuguese record is the testament of Afonso II of 1214: meu filio infante don Sancho “my son the infante Dom Sancho”.^[4] The Crónica Geral also has the sense “child”: a king was left Jnfante minino muy pequeno “a very small child”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The title was at first both masculine and feminine: the Crónica of 1344 speaks of a iffante, and Feijó (1734) notes that the word serves for either sex, though usage had come to prefer infanta for the daughter.^[4][9] Morais (1813) finds huma Infante in the classical authors but Infanta in general use.^[10] Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as the title of the king's sons below the first-born, who is called príncipe.^[11]

Cunha dates the sense “child” to the 14th century and the adjective “of childhood, childish” to the 17th.^[3] Morais (1813) illustrates the child that cannot yet speak with Camões, who calls Cupid a fraco infante “weak infant”.^[10] In the satirical cantigas infante also means a lad, and once a minor nobleman, an infanção.^[4] Viterbo records that the Benedictines once called their young monks Infantes.^[12]

Timeline

• 982 – illos infantes in a Latin charter.^[4]
• 1107 – coniuge mea infanta “my wife the infanta”, of Dona Urraca, in a Latin charter.^[4]
• 1214 – meu filio infante don Sancho in the testament of Afonso II.^[4]
• 14th century – the sense “child”.^[3]
• 1344 – a iffante of a princess in the Crónica of 1344.^[4]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists Infante, ou infanta.^[13]
• 17th century – the adjective “of childhood”.^[3][2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines the royal title.^[11]
• 1734 – Feijó discusses infante and infanta.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic or literary) A small child: O infante adormeceu no colo da ama.^[2][14][15]
2. A son of the king of Portugal or Spain who is not heir to the throne; the daughter is an infanta: O infante acompanhou o pai na viagem.^[2][15][16]
3. (history) In the first centuries of the monarchy, any son of the king.^[17]

Adjective

1. Of childhood (infância); infantil.^[2][14][15]

Word family

• infanta
• infantado

infante² foot soldier

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ĩˈfɐ̃.t͡ʃi/^[1]
• Portugal: /ĩˈfɐ̃.tɨ/^[1]

Forms

infante m (plural infantes)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the foot soldier is borrowed from Italian fante (“foot soldier”), influenced by infante¹ according to Aurélio and Nascentes.^[15][5] Houaiss names only the Italian word.^[18] Cunha and the DLP take it directly from Old Italian infante (“soldier on foot”).^[3][14]

The Italian word is a shortened form of infante, from Latin īnfāns.^[18][1] The DELI dates its senses “child” to the end of the 12th century, “servant, lad” to 1261 and “foot soldier” to 1310–1312.^[19] Foot soldiers were seen in the Middle Ages as the servants of the knights, and the Spanish word for the infantryman, of about 1550, was also modelled on the Italian one.^[7] Figueiredo (1899) thought the Italian word Germanic.^[20]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the military sense to the 17th century, and Lorenzo's notes give Machado's 17th-century date after Morais.^[18][3][4] The collective infantaria, from Italian, is recorded earlier, in 1510.^[21]

Semantic evolution

Folqman's dictionary of 1755 enters two words: infante the king's son and infante “foot soldier”, Latin pedes.^[22] The DLP lists the medieval sense “servant who followed a mounted warrior on foot” and marks the military senses as dated; in Rio Grande do Sul it was also said of a revolutionary who fought on foot.^[14][23]

Timeline

• 1510 – first record of infantaria.^[21]
• 17th century – infante “foot soldier”.^[18][3]
• 1755 – Folqman enters infante “soldier on foot”.^[22]
• 1899 – Figueiredo gives the soldier its own article, Infante².^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soldier of the infantry (infantaria); a foot soldier, a peão.^[18][15][24]
2. (history, military) In the Middle Ages, a servant who served on foot a warrior fighting on horseback.^[14]
3. (archaic, ecclesiastical) A young chorister among the Benedictine monks.^[14][16][24]