lado

Forms

lado m (plural lados)^[1] Houaiss records a 15th-century spelling llado.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin latus (“side, flank”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lado in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin noun was neuter, with the same form in the nominative and accusative;^[5][6] Nascentes explains the Portuguese word from a form ⟨latu⟩, the noun being declined as if it belonged to the second declension.^[5][6] Aurélio instead derives it from the neuter form through an intermediate ⟨lados⟩, and the DCECH shows such a singular in early Spanish documents, in the phrase ⟨al lados de⟩ “beside”.^[7][8]

The same Latin word is Spanish lado, Italian lato, Old Occitan latz, Old French lez and Romanian latură.^[9][1] De Vaan finds no good etymology for the Latin noun, an old “s”-stem: a link with sliss (“side”) and its Welsh cognate is attractive in meaning, but the preform it requires would have given a different Latin word, and he also considers a derivation from lateō (“to be hidden”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are of 1280.^[2][11] A document of that year quoted in Viterbo's Elucidário has lados for loins of pork, in a list of what was owed, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria have viu de lado / cabo da porta estar / a virgen “he saw the Virgin standing at the side by the door” and de cada lado “on each side”.^[12][11][2]

Semantic evolution

The cantigas already use the word for one's party: seer do seu lado “to be on someone's side”.^[11][13] Bluteau (1712–1728) records the side of a ship and the flanks of an army, and Morais (1813) adds a figurative use for the people who keep someone company, while marking the sense “loin of pork” as obsolete.^[14][15] Modern dictionaries add the geometrical senses, “each line that bounds a figure” and “each face of a solid”, the senses “direction” and “aspect” and the side of a family: do lado materno.^[2][16] Derivatives are early: ladear and ladeira “slope” are recorded in the 15th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 1280 – lados “loins of pork” in a document quoted by Viterbo.^[12][2]
• 13th century – de lado and de cada lado in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[11]
• c. 1430 – lado in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[17]
• 15th century – first records of ladear and ladeira.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Lado by Latin latus.^[18]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the side of a ship and of an army.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais marks the sense “loin of pork” as obsolete.^[15]
• 1813 – first record of the learned lateral.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The right or left part of the body of a person or animal; the flank: deitou-se de lado.^[19][16][1]
2. The place to the right or left of someone or something: sentou-se ao meu lado.^[7][4]
3. Each of the parts of a thing as against the middle or the other part: os dois lados da estrada.^[2][4]
4. Each surface or face of an object: o outro lado da folha.^[7][19]
5. direction; place, area: foi para aqueles lados.^[7][16]
6. A party or faction: estar do lado de alguém.^[7][16]
7. An aspect of a matter: o lado bom da situação.^[7][16]
8. A line of kin: primos do lado paterno.^[16][20]
9. (geometry) Each of the lines that bound a plane figure or an angle; each face of a solid.^[2][19]

Word family

• ladear
• ladeira

Related words

• lateral
• colateral
• Latin latus
• Galician lado

Usage notes

Common phrases are ao lado “beside”, lado a lado “side by side”, de lado a lado “from end to end” and pôr de lado “to set aside, to give up”.^[20][16]

The old language also had an adjective lado, feminine lada, “wide, broad”, from Latin lātus (“broad”): the Crónica Troiana speaks of eyebrows ladas et grossas, and Morais (1813) still quotes barcas grandes, ladas from Barros.^[11][15][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lado
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lado
4. ^ a b c 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. lado
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lado
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 288
7. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lado
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 554
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4934
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. lado
12. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 83
13. ^ 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. lado
14. ^ 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. lado
15. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 199
16. ^ a b c d e f g Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. lado
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. lado
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lado
19. ^ a b c 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. lado
20. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5543