leão

Forms

leão m (plural leões, feminine leoa, feminine plural leoas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote leon, leõ and, in the 14th century, leom, lyon, lyam and the plural liooes.^[2][3][4] A letter of 1504 spells it leam.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin leō (“lion”), written Old Galician-Portuguese leon in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][6] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek λέων (léōn), an old borrowing.^[7][1]

The same Latin word is Galician león, Spanish león, Catalan lleó, French lion, Italian leone and Romanian leu.^[8][1] Corominas observes that the Spanish word kept its /e/ unchanged because it was constantly remodelled on Latin, the lion being a foreign animal everywhere, and that the same happened in all the Romance languages.^[9]

Beekes considers the Greek word probably not Indo-European, and similar words for the lion exist in several ancient languages, among them Akkadian labbu, and who borrowed from whom is unclear.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century speak of the Mother of him que livrou dos leões Daniel “who freed Daniel from the lions”, and of the devil appearing en figura de mui bravo leon “in the shape of a very fierce lion”.^[4] The Crónica Troiana describes a knight bravo et ardido cõmo hun leon “fierce and bold as a lion”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The lion as a figure of courage is already in the medieval texts, and the 14th-century Soliloquio calls the devil “the infernal lion”.^[4] Morais (1813) adds the sign of the zodiac and an old piece of artillery mentioned by Barros.^[11] The figurative senses multiplied: a brave or vigorous person, a bad-tempered one, a celebrity, and a man who boasts of his conquests.^[2][12] In Brazil o leão is informally the tax office that collects income tax, and the lion is the 16th group of the jogo do bicho.^[2] In Portugal leão is a supporter of Sporting Clube de Portugal, whose emblem is a lion.^[13][12]

The word passed into Kabuverdianu as lion, Papiamentu leon and Tetum leaun.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][4]
• 13th century – first record of the feminine leõa.^[3]
• 14th century – the spellings leom, lyon and lyam.^[3][2]
• 1504 – leam in a private letter.^[5]
• 1611 – Barbosa enters Leão with leoa and leonada.^[14]
• 16th century – first record of leonino.^[3]
• 1813 – Morais records the sign of the zodiac and the old cannon.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The lion, Panthera leo, a large feline of Africa and southern Asia whose male has a mane.^[2][15][1]
2. (figurative) A strong, brave or tenacious person.^[2][16]
3. (figurative) A bad-tempered, rough person.^[2][12]
4. (figurative) A person in the spotlight, a celebrity.^[2][13]
5. (figurative, dated) A ladies' man who boasts of his conquests.^[2][12]
6. (Brazil, informal) The tax authority that collects imposto de renda.^[2]
7. (astronomy, astrology) Leo, the fifth constellation and sign of the zodiac (zodíaco) (with a capital).^[2][16]
8. (heraldry) The figure of a lion.^[12][1]
9. (Portugal, football) A supporter of Sporting Clube de Portugal.^[13][12]

Word family

• leoa
• leãozinho
• dente-de-leão
• boca-de-leão
• leão-marinho
• leão de chácara
• mata-leão

Related words

• leônculo
• leoneira
• leonino
• leopardo
• Latin leō
• Galician león

Usage notes

The place name Leão (León, in Spain) has a separate source, Latin legio “legion”.^[1]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. leão
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. leão
4. ^ 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. leon
5. ^ a b 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. leão
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. leão
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. leō
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4984
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 631
10. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. λέων
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 211
12. ^ a b c d e f Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. leão
13. ^ 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. leão
14. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. leão
15. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. leão
16. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5615