inferno

Forms

inferno m (plural infernos)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese also wrote iferno, infferno and ynferno.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin īnfernus (“hell; the underworld”), written Old Galician-Portuguese inferno or Old Galician-Portuguese iferno in the oldest texts.^[4][5][1] In classical Latin the word was an adjective meaning “lying lower, of the regions below”, and its neuter plural was used for the underworld; the singular noun “hell” belongs to the Christian writers.^[4][6][7] Wiktionary explains the noun as short for a phrase with locus (“place”), “the nether place”.^[1] The adjective was formed from the stem of īnferus (“below, beneath”), the source of Portuguese ínfero, perhaps after supernus (“upper”).^[6][1] Nascentes considers the word learned, the old form without n having been reshaped after the Latin.^[8]

The same Latin word is Galician inferno, Spanish infierno, Catalan infern, French enfer and Italian inferno; it was also borrowed into Welsh.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A document of 1228 has e cum Judas traedor no inferno danado “and with Judas the traitor damned in hell”, and one of 1271 seya danado por ja mays no infferno “may he be damned for ever in hell”.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of breaking open the old hell (britaria o inferno antigo).^[2] Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The Miragres de Santiago already use the plural os infernos for the place to which Christ descended.^[2] Morais in 1789 adds two technical senses, the hole in which the wheel of a water mill turns and a vat of the mill into which the mash is drawn off, and the popular phrase fazer inferno a alguém “to make a row, to try someone's patience”.^[11] The mill and olive-press senses are still recorded in Portuguese dialect surveys.^[12] Figurative senses, “a torment”, “great disorder”, “a very hot place”, are given by the modern dictionaries, as is the locked section of a library where licentious books are kept.^[4][13][1] Inferno Verde, “the green hell”, is a literary name for Amazonia.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1228 – no inferno danado in a document.^[2]
• 1200s – first record of infernal.^[5]
• 1271 – the spelling infferno.^[2]
• c. 1440 – first CTA text with the word, the Dez Mandamentos da Ley de Moisés.^[15]
• 1500s – first record of infernar.^[5]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders it gehenna and inferi.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records the mill senses.^[11]
• 1873 – first record of infernizar.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Christianity) hell, the place or state of eternal punishment of the damned; often capitalised.^[4][17][1]
2. (mythology) The underworld, the abode of the dead; often in the plural.^[4][18]
3. The demons who live in hell, and their power.^[4][18]
4. (figurative) A place or situation that recalls hell by its heat or fire.^[4][1]
5. (figurative) Great torment: O trabalho naquela fábrica era um inferno.^[4][13][1]
6. (figurative) Great confusion or disorder, a inferneira.^[4][13]
7. The restricted part of a library where licentious books are kept.^[4][13]
8. A pit into which the waste of an olive press or the water of a mill runs.^[4][17]

Interjection

1. Inferno!, an exclamation of anger or displeasure.^[1]

Word family

• infernar
• infernizar
• inferneira

Related words

• infernal
• ínfero
• Latin īnfernus
• Spanish infierno

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. inferno
3. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. inferno
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. inferno
5. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. inferno
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. infernus
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 450
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. inferno
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. infernum
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. enfer
11. ^ 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, 717
12. ^ 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. inferno
13. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. inferno
14. ^ 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. inferno
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. inferno
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. inferno
17. ^ 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. inferno
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. inferno