janeiro

Forms

janeiro m (plural janeiros)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote janeiro, janeyro and janeyrro.^[2][3] Before the spelling reforms the month was written with a capital, Janeiro, which remained the rule until 1943 in Brazil and 1990 in Portugal.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin Iānuārius (“January”), written Old Galician-Portuguese janeyro in many of the oldest texts.^[4][5][1][2] The Latin word was first an adjective, “of Janus”, used as a noun for the month named after Iānus, the two-faced god of doorways and beginnings.^[4][6]

Houaiss derives the Portuguese word not from the classical form but from Vulgar Latin *jannarius, with the consonantal u assimilated to the n before it.^[4] The DDGM likewise sees a form with a double n behind the Galician-Portuguese word rather than the *jenuarius of the Latin inscriptions,^[2] and Wiktionary reconstructs an intermediate pronunciation */janˈnai̯ru/.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician xaneiro, Spanish enero, Catalan gener, French janvier and Italian gennaio.^[7][1] The Spanish word comes from that inscriptional variant, and the medieval Leonese and Aragonese forms still keep its initial consonant.^[8] The learned doublet of the Portuguese word is the name Januário.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 998 already has the personal name Ianneiro.^[2] The month name itself appears in Portuguese in 1265, xviijº dias andados de janeiro “eighteen days into January”, and in Galician texts from 1269, dous dias andados de janeyro.^[2] The troubadour Martin Anes Marinho speaks of a colt que mh antano prometheu en janeyro “that he promised me last year in January”.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the first month of the year.^[4][5] Bluteau's dictionary collects a long list of proverbs about it, such as da flor de Janeiro, ninguem encheo o celeiro “no one ever filled the granary with January's blossom”.^[10]

In the plural the month name became a common noun for “years of age”: Nascentes explains it as the first month standing for the whole year, and Houaiss labels it a euphemistic metaphor used above all of old people.^[11][4] In informal Portuguese of Portugal the word also means the mating season of cats, a sense Silva Bastos already records in 1912.^[4][12]

The word passed into Kabuverdianu and Guinea-Bissau Creole as janeru and into Tetum as janeiru.^[1] Since the spelling reforms it is written in lowercase, like the other month names.^[1]

Timeline

• 998 – the personal name Ianneiro in a Latin charter.^[2]
• 1265 – first record in a Portuguese document: xviijº dias andados de janeiro.^[2]
• 1269 – dous dias andados de janeyro in a Galician document.^[2]
• 1342 – the spelling janeyrro in the notarial books of Noia, beside janeyro (1345) and janeiro (1407).^[3]
• 1513 – janeiro in the Livro dos Mártires.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau lists the month with its Latin names and many proverbs.^[10]
• 1755 – Folqman glosses it with Latin Januarius.^[14]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the senses “mating season of cats” and, in the plural, “years of age”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. January, the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, with 31 days.^[4][15][1]
2. (in the plural, figurative) Years of age, said especially of old people: Já tem noventa janeiros e ainda trabalha.^[4][16][17]
3. (Portugal, informal) The heat of cats, their mating season.^[4][18][17]

Word family

• janeiras

Related words

• Latin Iānuārius
• Galician xaneiro
• Spanish enero

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. janeyro
3. ^ a b 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. janeiro
4. ^ 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. janeiro
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. janeiro
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. iānuārius
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 611
9. ^ 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. janeiro
10. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. janeiro
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. janeiro
12. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. janeiro
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. janeiro
14. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. janeiro
15. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. janeiro
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5454
17. ^ a b 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. janeiro
18. ^ 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. janeiro