médico

Forms

médico m (plural médicos, feminine médica, feminine plural médicas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin medicus (“physician; healing, medical”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] Houaiss notes the archaic forms Old Galician-Portuguese meje and mege, recorded in the 13th century, which developed apart from the learned word.^[2]

The Latin noun lives on in popular form in Catalan metge, Occitan metge, Old French miege and Venetian miedego, beside Italian medico.^[5] The old Castilian forms were Old Spanish mege and, taken from Catalan or Occitan, menje, while Spanish médico is learned, like the Portuguese one.^[6][5]

The OLD and Wiktionary derive the Latin word from medeor (“to heal, cure”) with the suffix -icus.^[7][1] Wiktionary adds that Prósper rejects this, because the suffix is not usually added to verb stems, and takes it as a thematic form of Proto-Italic *meddiks.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the noun to the 15th century, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2][3] The oldest record in the CTA is in the Regimento proveitoso contra a pestenença, a treatise against the plague, in a witness of about 1496; the sense is “physician”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defines the physician as one who knows and professes the art of medicine, and opens his article with the physicians whom Joseph ordered to embalm his father in Genesis.^[9] Feijó in 1734 warns against the popular spelling medeco.^[10] Houaiss dates the adjective “relating to medicine” to 1664.^[2]

The figurative sense “whatever restores health” is old: the original Aulete has it, with phrases such as médico espiritual “confessor, spiritual director” and visita de médico “a very short visit”.^[11] The Aulete Digital records médico idiota, once used in Portugal for a doctor without professional training.^[11] Ethnology uses médico feiticeiro for the healer of an indigenous people who cures with magic and herbs.^[2][12] In Brazil the word can also mean the remedy itself.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – the popular forms meje and mege.^[2]
• 15th century – first record of médico.^[2][3]
• c. 1496 – medico in the Regimento proveitoso contra a pestenença.^[8]
• 1620 – a private letter uses the word.^[13]
• 1664 – first record of the adjective “medical”.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau's article on the physician.^[9]
• 1734 – Feijó corrects medeco to médico.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais defines the doctor as the professor of medicine.^[14]
• 1877 – the adjective “Median” enters Morais's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A doctor, physician: a person trained and licensed to practise medicine: A médica receitou-lhe repouso.^[2][15][12]
2. (figurative) Something that cures or acts as a remedy (remédio): O descanso foi o seu melhor médico.^[2][12][1]
3. (in médico espiritual) A confessor or spiritual director.^[2][15]
4. (ethnology, in médico feiticeiro) A medicine man, a healer who uses magic and herbs.^[2][12]

Adjective

1. medical; relating to medicine or to doctors: um relatório médico.^[2][15][16]

Related words

• medicina
• medicar
• medicamento
• medicinal
• Latin medicus
• Catalan metge

Usage notes

A rarer adjective médico, “Median, of Media (ancient Persia) or the Medes”, comes through Latin from Greek; the Latin Mēdicus is formed from Mēdus (“Mede”).^[2][1] It means the same as medo “Mede”.^[2][1] Houaiss dates it from Morais's dictionary of 1877;^[2][12] Aurélio gives the phrase as guerras médicas “the Persian Wars”.^[2][12] Corriente traces the name to the Old Persian name of the country.^[17]

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 n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. médico
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. médico
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. médico
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5459
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. medicus
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. medicus
8. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. médico
9. ^ 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. médico
10. ^ 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. médico
11. ^ 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. médico
12. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. médico
13. ^ 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. médico
14. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 281
15. ^ a b c 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. médico
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. médico
17. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 387