leal

Forms

leal m or f (plural leais, comparable, comparative mais leal, superlative o mais leal or lealíssimo)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote leal and leaal, plural leales; 15th-century texts have leaaes, leaees and lyall.^[2][3] The spelling lial is recorded by Feijó in 1734 and by Houaiss for the coin.^[4][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lēgālis (“of the law; lawful”), written Old Galician-Portuguese leal in the oldest texts.^[2][5][1] It is the popular counterpart of the learned legal, from the same Latin word, which Cunha dates to the 15th century.^[2][5][1]

The same Latin word is Galician leal, Spanish leal, Catalan lleial, Occitan leial and French loyal, while Italian leale is from Old French.^[6][1] Old Spanish and Old Aragonese also had Old Spanish leyal, with a /j/ that broke the hiatus.^[7][8]

The Latin adjective is formed from lēx (“law”) and the suffix -ālis.^[9][1] Lewis & Short note that Tertullian already used it of a life lived according to the divine law;^[10][11] Nascentes explains the Portuguese sense from that: a loyal person keeps the laws of probity and honour.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is common in the 13th-century cantigas: the Cantigas de Santa Maria call the Virgin leal e mui verdadeira “loyal and most true” and say that she protects os que lle son leaes “those who are loyal to her”, and a satirical cantiga of Afons’ Eanes do Coton has sõo eu cord’ e leal “I am sensible and loyal”.^[3][12] Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century.^[2] Cunha does so too, and dates lealdade and desleal to the same century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The medieval glossaries render it “faithful, devoted, true, honest”, and the Crónica Troiana uses it of a faithful husband.^[3] The legal sense “in accordance with the law” survives in dictionaries but is marked as obsolete by the DLP, which also has an old sense “genuine, not counterfeit”.^[2][13]

The word also named coins: a letter of 1441 from the Infante Pedro raised the value of the silver leais that King João I had minted from ten to twelve réis, and Bluteau records a copper leal struck at Goa by Afonso de Albuquerque.^[14][15] Morais and Vieira assign the twelve-réis coin to João II instead.^[16][17]

In European Portuguese the word is pronounced as one syllable, /ˈljal/, while Brazil keeps two, /leˈaw/.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the satirical cantigas.^[2][3]
• 1390–1437 – the Horto do Esposo uses the word.^[18]
• 15th century – the spellings leaaes, leaees and lyall;^[14] legal enters as a learned word.^[2][5]
• 1441 – the Infante Pedro revalues the coins called leais.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin fidelis.^[19]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the copper coin of Goa.^[15]
• 1734 – Feijó gives the spelling lial.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. loyal, faithful to one's commitments or devoted to a person or cause.^[2][13][1]
2. honest, sincere and frank; true to the rules of honour.^[2][20][1]
3. (obsolete) In accordance with the law; legal.^[2][13]

Noun

1. (history) A Portuguese coin of the time of King João I.^[2][13][20]
2. (history) A copper coin struck at Goa by order of Afonso de Albuquerque.^[2][15]

Word family

• lealdade
• desleal
• deslealdade
• lealmente

Related words

• legal
• lei
• Latin lēgālis
• Spanish leal
• French loyal

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. leal
3. ^ a b c d 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. leal
4. ^ a b 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. leal
5. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lei
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4968
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 293
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. legalis
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. lēgālis
10. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. lēgālis
11. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. leal
12. ^ 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. leal
13. ^ a b c d 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. leal
14. ^ a b c 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, 87
15. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. leal
16. ^ 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, 12
17. ^ 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, 1275
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. leal
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. leal
20. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. leal