lugar

Forms

lugar m (plural lugares)^[1] The spellings lugar and loguar are of the 13th century, logo of the 14th and llugar of the 15th.^[2] Logar was used beside lugar for centuries, and Silva Bastos (1912) still calls lugar the less usual spelling.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin locālis (“of a place, local”), an adjective used as a noun, written both Old Galician-Portuguese lugar and Old Galician-Portuguese logar in the oldest texts.^[2][5][1][6] The Latin adjective is a derivative of locus (“place”) with the suffix -ālis.^[1] The Latin noun gave an old Old Galician-Portuguese logo, which survives only as the adverb logo “at once; then”.^[6][2] Corominas explains the replacement in Spanish the same way: the noun had become confused with the adverb.^[7]

The same formation is Galician lugar, Asturian llugar and Spanish lugar, while Catalan lloc, French lieu and Italian luogo continue the noun itself.^[1][8][4]

The vowel /u/ is hard to explain.^[4][9] Nascentes reports that the spelling with ⟨u⟩ seems as old as the one with ⟨o⟩, as in Spanish, which made Gonçalves Viana and Otoniel Mota doubt the etymon; others see a dissimilation in the final /r/ and leave the /u/ unexplained, and Bourciez thought of Asturian influence.^[4] The glossary of the Crónica Geral holds that the change happened within Galician-Portuguese, though not in any clear way.^[9]

De Vaan finds the usual derivation of the old form stlocus from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to put, place”) impossible to square with its suffix, and leaves the origin open.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest vernacular records are in documents: en meu lugar “in my place” in 1253–1254, and in 1257 both desse meesmo lugar and desse meesmo logar “of that same place”.^[9] The Crónica Troiana speaks of as matas et os lugares espessos “the woods and the thick places”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word already meant a site, a settlement, a lineage, a social rank and a person's turn.^[9] Bluteau describes it as the space a body takes up, and Feijó lists it with the diminutive lugarejo “hamlet”.^[11][12] Morais (1813) adds “spare time” (ainda não tive lugar de “I have not yet had time to”), a passage of an author, a post or rank, and ter lugar “to fit”.^[13]

Modern senses include a seat, a place in a ranking, a job, and, in Portugal, a shop or stall selling vegetables and fruit.^[2][14][15]

Timeline

• 1253–1254 – en meu lugar in a document.^[9]
• 1257 – both lugar and logar in documents of the same year.^[9]
• 1300s – the form logo.^[2]
• 1400 – lugar in a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum kept in Santiago de Compostela (witness 1380–1425).^[16]
• 1400s – the spelling llugar.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin locus and oppidum.^[17]
• 1734 – Feijó lists lugar and lugarejo.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais records ter lugar and the sense “spare time”.^[13]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos still heads the word logar.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place; the space occupied, or that can be occupied, by a body.^[2][14][1]
2. A particular spot or site: o lugar onde nasceu.^[2][18]
3. Room, available space: Não há lugar para mais ninguém no carro.^[18][1]
4. A seat: Guardei-te um lugar na primeira fila.^[19][1]
5. A locality (localidade); a small settlement, a hamlet.^[2][14]
6. A position in a ranking or order: ficar em segundo lugar.^[19][1]
7. A post or job; a rank, a social position.^[14][20]
8. A passage in a book.^[14][1]
9. An occasion, an opportunity.^[14][1]
10. (Portugal) A shop or stall that sells vegetables, fruit and eggs.^[15][14]

Word family

• lugarejo
• lugarzinho

Related words

• local
• localidade
• localização
• localizar
• logo
• Latin locus
• Galician lugar

Usage notes

Em lugar de and no lugar de mean “instead of”, and em primeiro lugar “first of all”.^[1][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lugar
3. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. lugar
4. ^ a b c d Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 305
5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lugar
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lugar
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 710
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. localis
9. ^ a b c d e f g 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. lugar
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. locus
11. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lugar
12. ^ 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. lugar
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 239
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. lugar
15. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. lugar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. lugar
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lugar
18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lugar
19. ^ a b 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. lugar
20. ^ 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. lugar