ladrão

Forms

ladrão m (plural ladrões, feminine ladra or (colloquial) ladrona or (colloquial) ladroa, feminine plural ladras or (colloquial) ladronas or (colloquial) ladroas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote ladron and ladrom, with the plurals ladrões and ladrues; the 14th century has ladrooes and ladram, the 15th ladrõ and ladrõees.^[2][3][4] The feminine is ladra, colloquially also ladrona and ladroa.^[1][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin latrō (“mercenary soldier; robber”), continued in the form of its accusative latrōnem, and written Old Galician-Portuguese ladron in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][6] Houaiss notes that the nominative gave the divergent ladro.^[2] Nascentes observes that it took the place of Latin fūr (“thief”).^[6]

The same Latin word is Galician ladrón, Spanish ladrón, Catalan lladre and Catalan lladró, Old Occitan lairon, French larron and Italian ladro.^[7][8][1] Corominas notes that it is common to all the Romance languages except Romanian and Sardinian.^[8]

In Latin the word first meant a hired soldier, the only sense found in Plautus, and later a brigand or highway robber; it was also a piece in the game of draughts.^[2][9] The OLD takes it probably from a Greek word related to Ancient Greek λάτρον (látron, “pay, hire”) and λατρεύς (latreús, “hired servant”), and the DHLF also derives it from that Greek base.^[9][10] Wiktionary calls the origin disputed: some derive it from a root Proto-Indo-European *leh₂t- (“to grant, possess”), while Beekes rejects an Indo-European origin for the Greek words.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, 1059, comes from a Latin charter with the plural ladrones.^[2] In Galician-Portuguese a text of 1228 glossed in the DDGM has Traedor prouado e ladron conuçudo “a proven traitor and known thief”.^[4] The Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of un ladron maldito, que romeus robava “an accursed thief who robbed pilgrims”, and the Crónica Troiana of a man hanged cõmo ladron “as a thief”.^[4] From the start the word meant someone who steals.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 distinguishes the thief, Latin fur, from the ladrão dos caminhos or highwayman, Latin latro, and has ladrão de gado “cattle thief”.^[11] Morais (1813) adds two transferred senses: a shoot growing at the foot of a tree that “steals” its nourishment, and a vessel set in wine cellars to catch what leaks from the casks.^[12] Nascentes explains the shoot and the overflow pipe, also called ladrão, in the same way: one steals the sap, the other the excess water.^[6]

Figuratively the word means an unscrupulous person, and familiarly a rascal or a sly one.^[2][5][13] In north-eastern Brazil it describes an animal, usually an ox, that breaks fences to get into the crops.^[2][14] In Brazilian games the cry ladrão! warns a player that an opponent is coming from behind, and children play polícia e ladrão, a game of chase.^[1][15] Printers use the word for a fold or a scrap of paper that leaves a blank in the impression.^[2]

The word passed into the Portuguese-based creoles: ladron in Guinea-Bissau Creole and Angolar, ladrang in Kristang, ladran in Principense;^[1] Wiktionary also lists Shona ladrone.^[1]

Timeline

• 1059 – a Latin charter writes ladrones.^[2]
• 1228 – ladron conuçudo in a Galician-Portuguese text.^[4]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use ladron and ladrões.^[4][2]
• 14th century – the spellings ladrooes and ladram.^[2]
• 1544 – a private letter writes ladram.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists ladrão dos caminhos and ladrão de gado.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais records the senses “harmful shoot” and “cellar vessel”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thief; someone who steals or robs: o ladrão fugiu com a carteira.^[2][5][1]
2. (figurative) A dishonest, unscrupulous person; a cheat.^[2][5][17]
3. (informal) A rascal, a sly person.^[2][5][13]
4. An overflow pipe or opening through which surplus water runs out of a tank.^[2][5][18]
5. (Portugal) A vessel or channel under a wine press or in a cellar that catches the liquid that overflows or leaks.^[2][19]
6. (agriculture) A fast-growing sucker at the base of a trunk or on the roots that weakens the plant.^[2][13]
7. (printing) A fold or scrap of paper that leaves a gap in the impression.^[2]
8. A piece in the game of draughts.^[2]

Adjective

1. That steals; thieving.^[2][5][17]
2. Obtained by theft: dinheiro ladrão.^[2]
3. (north-eastern Brazil) Of cattle: given to breaking fences to get into the crops.^[2]

Word family

• ladroagem
• ladroeira
• ladroíce

Related words

• ladro
• latrocínio
• Latin latrō
• Spanish ladrón

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include com pés de ladrão “on a thief's feet”, that is, without being heard, and cara de ladrão “a guilty face”.^[13] In Brazil botar pelo ladrão means to have more than enough, of money or of an audience.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 s t u v w Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ladrão
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ladrão
4. ^ 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. ladron
5. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ladrão
6. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ladrão
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4931
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 555
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. latrō
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. larron
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ladrão
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 199
13. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5544
14. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. ladrão
15. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. 2
16. ^ 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. ladrão
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. ladrão
18. ^ 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. ladrão
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ladrão