logro

Forms

logro m (plural logros)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lucrum (“gain, profit”), the popular form of the word whose learned doublet is lucro.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Aulete's old edition took the noun from the verb lograr, itself the popular counterpart of lucrar.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Spanish logro “usury”, Catalan llogre, Old Occitan logre “gift” and Romanian lucru “business, thing”.^[8] The Spanish word is first recorded in the 13th century, translating Latin usura.^[9] De Vaan reconstructs *luklo-, later dissimilated, from *lh₂u-tló- (“seizure, gain”), related to ἀπολαύω (apolaúō, “to enjoy”).^[10][1]

Houaiss explains the move to “fraud”: the idea of gain shifted from the one who gains to the one who is made to pay and to the trick used, hence a profit obtained by deceit.^[2] Nascentes put it more bluntly: to make a profit the trader sometimes cheats his customer.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date logro to the 15th century.^[2][3] Lorenzo's chronology quotes the Vita Christi: com o logro … ainda levavam mais algũa cousa de logro, where the word means profit or interest.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The old sense was material gain and usury: Pereira (1697) glosses it with Latin lucrum, and Morais (1789) records pagar com logro “to pay with interest” and dar dinheiro a logro “to lend money at interest”.^[12][13] Through the verb lograr “to enjoy” the noun also meant possession and enjoyment, the sense Bluteau gives in 1716.^[14][2] Houaiss marks the sense “gain” as obsolete; today the main sense is a trick or fraud, and also a Carnival prank.^[2][6] In the Minho, em logro de means “instead of”.^[6]

Timeline

• 15th century – first record, according to Houaiss and Cunha.^[2][3]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses logro as Latin lucrum.^[12]
• 1716 – Bluteau defines it as possession.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais records dar dinheiro a logro “to lend at interest”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or result of deceiving someone (lograr): a fraud, swindle, trick.^[2][15][1]
2. A joke or prank, especially one played at Entrudo.^[2][16]
3. Enjoyment, possession; the attainment of something.^[2][15][1]
4. (obsolete) Material gain, profit; usury.^[2][15]

Word family

• logreiro

Related words

• lograr
• lucro
• lucrar
• Latin lucrum
• Spanish logro

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. logro
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lograr
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. logro
5. ^ 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. logro
6. ^ a b c Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. logro
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lograr
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 688
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. logro
12. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. logro
13. ^ 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, 11
14. ^ 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. logro
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. logro
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. logro