lutador

Forms

lutador (feminine lutadora, masculine plural lutadores, feminine plural lutadoras, not comparable)^[1] The old spellings are luitador and luytador (15th century), and luctador (1708), modelled on the Latin.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin luctātor (“wrestler”), first written Old Galician-Portuguese luitador and luytador.^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes calls the word semi-learned.^[4] Wiktionary notes that in today's language it can also be read as from Portuguese lutar + -dor.^[1]

The same Latin word gave Galician loitador, Spanish luchador, Catalan lluitador and Italian lottatore.^[1][5][6] The Latin noun is formed from luctor (“to wrestle”) with the agent suffix -tor.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates luitador to the 14th century, and Houaiss records the spellings luitador and luytadores in the 15th.^[3][2] A Galician text quoted in Lorenzo's chronology explains the name Israel as luytador cõ santo angeo, “one who wrestles with a holy angel”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries translate the word with Latin terms for an athlete or a wrestler: Cardoso (1569) has athleta, Pereira (1697) adds palaestrita and luctator, and Bluteau defines it as someone who trains in wrestling.^[9][10][11] Morais (1813) still glosses it “one who wrestles, an athlete”.^[12] Modern dictionaries give the figurative sense first: someone who strives against difficulties and does not give up.^[2][13] In Rio Grande do Sul it is said of a person or animal that works hard to make a living.^[14]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, as luitador.^[3]
• 15th century – luitador and luytadores.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses the word Latin athleta.^[9]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro lists it.^[10]
• 1708 – the latinising spelling luctador.^[2]
• 1813 – Morais defines it as “one who wrestles, an athlete”.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. fighting; combative, determined to overcome difficulties: uma mulher lutadora.^[2][15][16]

Noun

1. A wrestler or fighter, someone who practises a combat sport, as an amateur or a professional.^[2][15][17]
2. A person of fighting spirit, always ready to defend a person or a cause and to strive for an aim.^[2][15][18]

Related words

• lutar
• luta
• Latin luctator
• Galician loitador
• Spanish luchador

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. lutador
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. luta
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lutador
5. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. loitador
6. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. luchador
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. luctator
8. ^ 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. luytador
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lutador
10. ^ 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. lutador
11. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lutador
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 241
13. ^ 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. lutador
14. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. lutador
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lutador
16. ^ 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. lutador
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5793
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. lutador