judeu

Forms

judeu (feminine judia, masculine plural judeus, feminine plural judias)^[1] Houaiss records the older spellings iudeos (plural), judeo and iudeus beside judeu.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin iūdaeus (“Jew, Judaean”), written Old Galician-Portuguese judeu in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes calls it a learned word, and the DCECH finds the learned character of the Portuguese form clear, since it keeps the Latin -d- between vowels.^[3][4] Old Galician-Portuguese also had a popular form, Old Galician-Portuguese judio, which the learned form largely displaced.^[1] The popular form survives in the feminine judia and in Galician xudía.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician xudeu, Spanish judío, Catalan jueu, French juif and Italian giudeo.^[5][6][1]

The Latin word is from Ancient Greek Ἰουδαῖος (Ioudaîos), formed from Ἰουδά (Ioudá), from Biblical Hebrew יְהוּדָה (Yəhūḏā), the name of Judah.^[1] Houaiss, Corriente and the DLP derive it from the Hebrew adjective יהודי (yəhūḏī) “of Judah, Judahite”, the attributive of the name of Jacob's son Judah, ancestor of the tribe.^[2][7][8] The DHLF adds that the Greek word came through an Aramaic form corresponding to the Hebrew one.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's earliest record is of 1018, the plural iudeos, taken from Machado's material; the Portuguese spelling judeu is dated 1272.^[2] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria Jews are named beside Moors (non avia y mouros nen judeus “there were neither Moors nor Jews there”), and a cantiga d'escarnho of Alfonso X has aprendi dun judeu “I learned from a Jew”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval language the word is used for the Jews of the Bible as well as for the Jewish communities of the Peninsula: the Crónica Troiana speaks of the Pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea while pursuing the Jews.^[10] Morais (1789) defines a judeu as one who follows the Law of Moses in full, with its rites and customs.^[11]

Popular use attached contemptuous senses to the word: Silva Bastos (1912) records “man of bad character” and “usurer”, which modern dictionaries keep with a pejorative label.^[12][2][8] Schlee traces the Brazilian adjectival sense “wicked” to a European antisemitic tradition.^[13] The name also passed to things: a long-bodied fish of the tuna family on the Portuguese coast, and in Brazil a maize cake and a bean dish.^[8][14] In Amazonas Syrians were called judeus, and in Santa Catarina conservatives, who called themselves Christians, used it as a nickname for the liberals.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 1018 – Houaiss's earliest record, the plural iudeos.^[2]
• 1272 – the spelling judeu.^[2]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria have judeus beside mouros.^[10] Houaiss also records the spelling judeo.^[10][2]
• c. 1430 – first occurrence in the CTA corpus, in the Horto do Esposo.^[16]
• 1537 – first occurrence in the private letters of Post Scriptum.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais defines the word by the Law of Moses.^[11]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the popular senses “man of bad character” and “usurer”.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Jewish: relating to the Jews, their people, religion or culture.^[2][8][1]
2. (historical) Relating to the tribe or kingdom of Judah, or to Judaea.^[2][18]
3. (informal, pejorative) miserly, grasping.^[8]

Noun

1. A Jew: a member or descendant of the Jewish people, or someone born of a Jewish mother.^[2][1]
2. A follower of Judaism (judaísmo).^[2][19]
3. (historical) A native or inhabitant of Judaea.^[2][20]
4. (informal, pejorative) A usurer or miser; a person of bad character.^[2][8]
5. (Brazil, cooking) A kind of maize cake; in Minas Gerais, a dish of beans or other fillings.^[2][8]
6. (zoology) A name for several long-bodied fishes of the tuna family off the Portuguese coast.^[8][20]

Word family

• judiaria
• judeidade

Related words

• judaico
• judaísmo
• Latin iūdaeus
• Spanish judío
• Galician xudeu

Usage notes

O judeu errante, the Wandering Jew of legend, condemned to roam the world until the end of time, gives the phrase its sense “a person who never settles”.^[2][8]

The pejorative senses are labelled offensive in the modern dictionaries.^[2][8][20] In one Portuguese dialect survey judeu is also the name for a native of Rebordelo.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. judeu
3. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. judeu
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 533
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4598
6. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 358
7. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. judeu
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. judeu
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. juif
10. ^ a b c d 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. judeu
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, 746
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. judeu
13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. judeu
14. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 829
15. ^ 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. judeu
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. judeu
17. ^ 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. judeu
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. judeu
19. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. judeu
20. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5496
21. ^ 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. judeu