jamais

Etymology

In Houaiss's view it is probably inherited from Latin iam magis (“already more”), a phrase made of iam (“now, already”) and magis (“more”), and it is written Old Galician-Portuguese jamais in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4] Machado, as Houaiss reports, held that the adverb must go back to Vulgar Latin, since the other Romance languages have the same compound, and should not be explained as a Portuguese compound of já and mais; several dictionaries nevertheless explain it so.^[2][5][6][7] Wiktionary instead derives it from the Old Occitan phrase ja mais.^[1] Corominas suggested that Spanish jamás, recorded in Spanish from about 1140, was likewise a literary adaptation of the Occitan phrase, perhaps because of its use in lyric poetry, although Houaiss notes how early the Spanish word appears.^[2][8]

The same phrase is Galician xamais, French jamais, Occitan jamai and Italian giammai.^[1] In French the two old adverbs are recorded together from about 980 and were welded into one word in the 13th century.^[9]

The first part is built on the pronoun stem of is (“he, that”): de Vaan explains it as an old accusative meaning “as far as this is concerned”, hence “now”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology gives as the first record a document of 1265 with the phrase por jamais “for ever”.^[4] In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda the word means “never”, but also, without a negation, “from now on, always”, as in sempre ja mais.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The positive sense of the early texts lived on in set phrases: the Miragres de Santiago have por senpre jamais and para senpre jamais “for ever and ever”.^[4] In modern Portuguese the word is chiefly a negative, “never”, and with emphasis “under no condition”; in conditional clauses and after superlatives it still means “ever, at some time”.^[2][11] Popular speech in Portugal also uses it for “above all, especially”, a sense Silva Bastos already recorded in 1912.^[2][12][5] In southern Brazil the doubled nunca jamais strengthens the negation, as nunca jamás does in Uruguay and Argentina.^[13]

Timeline

• 1265 – por jamais in a document.^[4]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) uses jamais.^[14]
• 1599 – a private letter spells it jamães.^[15]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the popular sense “especially”.^[5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. never, at no time, past or future: Jamais voltei àquela cidade.^[2][11][1]
2. In no way, under no condition: Jamais aceitaria um suborno.^[2]
3. ever, at any time (in conditional clauses and after superlatives): o pior inverno que jamais tivemos.^[2][11][6]
4. (Portugal, informal) especially, above all.^[2][12][6]

Related words

• já
• mais
• Latin iam
• Spanish jamás
• Galician xamais

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. jamais
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. jamais
4. ^ 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. jamais
5. ^ a b c Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. jamais
6. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5451
7. ^ 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. jamais
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ya
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. jamais
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. iam
11. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. jamais
12. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. jamais
13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. jamais
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. jamais
15. ^ 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. jamais