longo

Forms

longo (feminine longa, masculine plural longos, feminine plural longas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote longo and longu in the 13th century, lõguos in the 14th and llonga in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin longus (“long”), written Old Galician-Portuguese longo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] Beside it, the Latin adverb longē gave the Portuguese adverb meaning “far”.^[3]

The same Latin word is Galician longo, Spanish luengo, Catalan llong, French long, Italian lungo and Romanian lung.^[5][6] The Spanish word was in general use throughout the Middle Ages but became old-fashioned in the 16th century, giving way to largo.^[7]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *(d)longo- and PIE *dlongʰ-o-, the form that also underlies lang and langr; other branches point to *dl̥h₁gʰós, as in ìlgas, and he leaves open whether these variants were once one word.^[8] Wiktionary derives the Latin word from that second form, and compares *langaz.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 897 names a church de sancto martino de ualongo, with the word in a place name.^[9][2] In the vernacular the adjective is recorded from the 13th century: the Cancioneiro da Ajuda has longa sazon “a long time”, and the Crónica Troiana uses it of long hair (os cabelos boos et longos), of a story too long to tell and of a far country (moy longa terra).^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

The cantigas already use the word in its three senses, “long” in space, “stretching far” and “lasting”, and also as an adverb “for a long time”.^[10][11] Bluteau (1712–1728) cites Camões's tão longo amor and gives the term of prosody syllaba longa “long syllable”.^[12] Folqman (1755) records ao longo do mar “along the coast”, and Morais (1789) the senses “extended” and, figuratively, “lasting a long time”, as in longo tempo.^[13][14]

Modern Portuguese adds the noun senses “length” and “long dress”, and an adverb “for a long time”.^[2] In Galician the word also means “tall”.^[15]

Timeline

• 897 – a Latin charter has the place name ualongo.^[9][2]
• 13th century – first vernacular records, spelt longo and longu.^[2][3]
• 1416 – longo in the Vida do Cativo Monge Confesso.^[16]
• 1542 – lomga in a private letter.^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary heads the word Longo.^[18]
• 1755 – Folqman lists ao longo do mar.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais defines the adjective in space and in time.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. long: longer than usual from end to end: Ela usa o cabelo longo.^[2][19][1]
2. Stretching over a great distance.^[2][20]
3. Lasting a long time; lengthy, protracted.^[2][19][21]
4. Going back a long way; of long standing.^[2][19]
5. (pejorative) Too long, lacking concision: of a speech, a text or a film.^[2][22]
6. (phonetics) Of a sound or syllable: of greater duration than others in the same language, as against breve.^[2][19]

Noun

1. length (comprimento).^[2][23]
2. (clothing) A long dress.^[2]

Adverb

1. For a long time.^[2]

Word family

• alongar
• alongado
• alongamento
• delonga
• delongar
• longamente

Related words

• longe
• longitude
• longínquo
• longevo
• Latin longus
• Galician longo
• Spanish luengo

Usage notes

Ao longo de means “along” and also “in the course of”: ao longo dos séculos.^[2][24] De longo a longo is “from end to end”.^[2][21] An older ao longo meant “in the distance”.^[2]

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 n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. longo
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. longo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. longo
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5119
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. longus
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 708
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. longo
10. ^ 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. longo1
11. ^ 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. longo2
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. longo
13. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. longo
14. ^ 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, 32
15. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. longo1
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. longo
17. ^ 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. longo
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. longo
19. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. longo
20. ^ 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. longo
21. ^ a b 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. longo
22. ^ 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. longo
23. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 875
24. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. longo