móvel

Forms

móvel m (plural móveis)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote mouil, movil and mouel, with the plurals mouils and mouijs.^[2][3] Houaiss records movel from the 15th century.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mōbilis (“movable”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mouil and Old Galician-Portuguese movil in the oldest texts.^[3][2][1] Houaiss and Wiktionary set it beside móbil, the learned borrowing of the same Latin adjective.^[3][1]

The same Latin word is Galician moble, Spanish mueble, Catalan moble, French meuble and Italian mobile.^[4][1] In legal Latin the adjective had come to mean “movable property” as opposed to land, the sense of the French and Spanish nouns.^[5][6]

The Latin adjective is formed from moveō (“to move”) with the suffix -bilis, through an older *moubilis whose diphthong became long /oː/.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The testament of King Afonso II of 1214 already speaks of outr' auer mouil “other movable property” and todo meu auer mouil “all my movable property”.^[2] Charters of 1276 and 1362 pair it with raiz “land”: assy mouel como rayz “movable as well as landed”.^[2] A satirical cantiga uses the same pair, quant' ei na terra, móvil e raiz “all that I own in the land, movable and landed”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval language the word was above all a legal adjective for goods that can be carried away.^[2] Houaiss dates the general adjective “that can be moved” to the 15th century, together with the first noun use, “a piece of furniture”, and the noun “moving cause” to 1665.^[3] Morais (1789) gives the noun for the primeiro móvel, the outermost sphere of Ptolemy's astronomy that set the others in motion, and for the furnishings of a house, os móveis de huma casa.^[10]

Today the noun means chiefly a piece of furniture, and in a more abstract register the motive behind an act, a synonym of móbil.^[11][12][13] The adjective also means changeable and, figuratively, fickle.^[3][11]

Timeline

• 1214 – the testament of Afonso II has auer mouil “movable property”.^[2]
• 1266 – Houaiss's first record, spelt móvil.^[3]
• 1276 – assy mouel como rayz in a charter.^[2]
• 1336 – Viterbo cites a document with the forms movil and movis.^[14]
• 15th century – the spelling movel and the noun “piece of furniture”.^[3]
• 1665 – the noun “moving cause”.^[3]
• 1734 – Feijó prescribes the spelling Móvel, not Movele.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais lists the primeiro móvel and the móveis of a house.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That can move or be moved; not fixed.^{[3][11][12][1]}
2. Subject to change; unstable, variable.^[3][12]
3. (figurative) fickle, inconstant.^[11][16]
4. (law) Of property: that can be carried from one place to another, as opposed to land and buildings: bens móveis.^[13][17]
5. (military) Of a unit: that can be sent on missions or special operations.^[12]

Noun

1. A piece of furniture.^{[3][11][12][1]}
2. The motive or driving cause of an action; móbil.^[12][13][16]
3. (physics) A body in motion.^[11][17]
4. (heraldry) A charge placed on the field of a shield.^[12][17]

Related words

• móbil
• mobília
• imóvel
• mover
• Latin mōbilis
• Spanish mueble

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. mouil
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. móvel
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5624
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. meuble
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. mobilis
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. mōbilis
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. movil
9. ^ 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. movil
10. ^ 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, 100
11. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. móvel
12. ^ a b c d e f g 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. móvel
13. ^ a b c 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. móvel
14. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 165
15. ^ 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. móvel
16. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6346
17. ^ 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. móvel