lar

Forms

lar m (plural lares)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lar (“household god; hearth, home”).^[2][3][4] The REW counts the Portuguese word among the popular outcomes of the Latin word, beside Galician lar, Catalan llar and the Spanish llares (“pot-hook”).^[5] Wiktionary instead calls it a learned borrowing.^[1]

The same Latin word is Spanish lar, Asturian llar, Mirandese lhar and Italian lare.^[1][5]

The Latin word named the tutelary god of the house.^[6] De Vaan finds the alternation of a long and a short vowel in its stem unexplained, and notes that it may be a sound substitution in a loanword.^[6] Wiktionary considers it probably Etruscan.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha and Houaiss date the first record to the 15th century, in the sense of the place in the kitchen where the fire is lit.^[3][2] Lorenzo's chronology gives a Galician inventory of 1485 with hua caldeyra de sobre do lar “a cauldron from over the hearth”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss and Cunha date the extended sense “the house, home” to 1572.^[2][3] Bluteau (1712–1728) still defines the word as the floor of the chimney where the fire is made, or the whole house, and connects it with the Roman household gods; he notes that Cicero calls the house lar.^[8] Morais (1789) has os pátrios lares “one's native home” and, as a provincial word, the chain that holds the cauldron over the fire.^[9]

From the home the word passed to the family, the homeland and an animal's nest or den; in Portugal a lar is also a residential home, as for the elderly.^[2][10] In the rural speech of Portugal the old senses of hearth and oven floor survive.^[11]

Timeline

• 15th century – first record, “hearth”.^[3][2]
• 1485 – do lar in a Galician inventory.^[7]
• 1572 – first record of the sense “home”.^[2][3]
• 1664 – first record of the derivative lareira.^[12]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as the floor of the chimney.^[8]
• 1734 – Feijó gives the same definition.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records os pátrios lares.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The place in the kitchen where the fire is lit; the hearth, lareira.^[2][14][1]
2. (figurative) The house one lives in, home.^[2][14][1]
3. (figurative) The family living under one roof.^[2][10]
4. (figurative) One's homeland or native land.^[2][14]
5. The floor of a bread oven, where the dough is laid to bake; the underside of the loaf.^[2][10][1]
6. An animal's nest or den.^[2][10]
7. (Portugal) A residential home providing meals, lodging and care, as for the elderly.^[10]
8. (in the plural, lares) The household gods of the Etruscans and Romans.^[2][15]

Word family

• lareira
• lareiro
• larário

Related words

• Latin lar

Usage notes

Lar, doce lar “home, sweet home” is a set phrase.^[1]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lar
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lar
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4910
6. ^ a b 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. lar
7. ^ 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. lar
8. ^ 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. lar
9. ^ 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. 2, 8
10. ^ a b c d e 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. lar
11. ^ 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. lar
12. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lareira
13. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lar
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lar
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. lar