largueza

Forms

largueza f (plural larguezas)^[1] Houaiss records the spelling largeza in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese largo + -eza, the abstract noun of the adjective “wide; generous”.^[2][3][4][5] Cunha dates it to the 13th century, like largura, the other noun of the same adjective.^[6] Vieira derived it in 1871 from Latin largitia, a view the later dictionaries do not take up.^[7]

The adjective comes from Latin largus (“abundant, plentiful”) and is written Old Galician-Portuguese largo in the oldest texts.^[6][1] The same formation is Galician largueza and Spanish largueza.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century from the Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional.^[2] There the troubadour Johan Baveca tells a lady e en vós ouve sempre gran largueza “and in you there was always great generosity”, setting it against escasseza “meanness”.^[10][11] The Miragres de Santiago pair largueza cõtra avariçia “generosity against avarice” among the virtues opposed to the vices.^[11] The first sense is thus the moral one, “liberality”, not the physical “width”.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the sense “generosity, liberality” to the 14th century and the sense “wastefulness, squandering” to the 15th.^[2] In 1712–1728 Bluteau calls it a synonym of liberalidade and explains it by the image of something wide that does not hold tight what it contains, unlike the miser.^[12] Morais (1813) gives both “width” and “liberality, freeness in spending”.^[13] Feijó (1734) pairs it with largura, and dialect surveys of Portugal still record it in the sense “width”.^[14][15]

Modern dictionaries add “ease, comfortable means” and a figurative “broadness of mind, tolerance”, as in largueza de espírito.^[3][4][2]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, in a cantiga of Johan Baveca: gran largueza “great generosity”.^[2][10]
• 14th century – Houaiss's date for the sense “liberality”.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling largeza; the sense “prodigality”.^[2]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) uses the word.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as liberalidade.^[12]
• 1755 – Folqman gives Latin laxitas for the width and largitio for the liberality.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais's dictionary enters it.^[18]
• 1871 – Vieira derives it from Latin and quotes a largueza do rio “the width of the river”.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. width, the quality of being wide; the same as largura.^[2][3]
2. (figurative) generosity, liberality in giving: Recebia os hóspedes com largueza.^[2][3][1]
3. (figurative) Plenty, comfortable means: viver com largueza.^[2][3]
4. (figurative) Tolerance, broadness of understanding: largueza de espírito.^[2][4][19]
5. (figurative) prodigality, wasteful spending.^[2][3][20]

Related words

• largo
• largura
• alargar
• largar
• Latin largus
• Galician largueza

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. largueza
3. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. largueza
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. largueza
5. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. largueza
6. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. largo
7. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 1265
8. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. largueza
9. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. largueza
10. ^ a b c 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. largueza
11. ^ a b c 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. largueza
12. ^ 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. largueza
13. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 206
14. ^ 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. largueza
15. ^ 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. largueza
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. largueza
17. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. largueza
18. ^ 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
19. ^ 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. largueza
20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5588