maduro

Forms

maduro (feminine madura, masculine plural maduros, feminine plural maduras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mātūrus (“ripe; timely”), written Old Galician-Portuguese maduro in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Houaiss explains the Latin sense as “produced at the right moment, at the favourable hour”, whence “ripe, fully grown”, and calls the word the popular doublet of the learned maturo.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician maduro, Spanish maduro, Catalan madur, French mûr and Italian maturo.^[4][1] In Spanish it is recorded from Berceo on.^[5]

De Vaan derives the Latin adjective from Proto-Italic *mātu- (“ripeness”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-tu-, and relates it to mātūtīnus (“of early morning”) and the name of Mātūta, goddess of the dawn.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first records to the 13th century.^[2] A satirical cantiga asks E meus narizes color de moras maduras? “And my nose the colour of ripe mulberries?”, and the Crónica Troiana says of something that it does not come out senõ des que he maduro “until it is mature”.^[7][8] Both senses, “ripe” of fruit and “grown, mature” of a living being, are there from the start.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) renders the word with Latin maturus, and Bluteau (1712) defines it of fruit that has reached its full goodness for picking, eating or storing.^[9][10] Morais (1789) applies it to fruit, bread and timber, to the age of a grown man, to a man mature in judgement, to a deliberation that has been thought over, and to a tumour ready to burst.^[11] Houaiss adds wine made from very ripe grapes and plans ready to give their result.^[2]

In Portugal the noun maduro also names a cod fisherman who has already made one or more voyages to the Newfoundland banks, and colloquially a freshman or simpleton.^[12][13] Regional surveys in Portugal recorded the senses “cunning” and “hard, painful”;^[14][15] Galician maduro can mean “sore from fatigue”.^[14][15] The derivatives madureza (14th century) and amadurecer (1344) are almost as old as the adjective.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, according to Houaiss.^[2]
• 1344 – first record of amadurecer.^[17]
• 14th century – first record of madureza.^[16]
• after 1450 – in the Livro das Tres Vertudes.^[18]
• 16th century – Cunha's first date for the word.^[3]
• 1561 – in a private letter.^[19]
• before 1569 – first record of the verb madurar.^[20]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines ripe fruit.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais records the senses “of mature age”, “prudent” and “ready to burst” (of a tumour).^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. ripe: of fruit or grain, fully developed and ready to be picked, eaten or sown: Só apanhamos os figos maduros.^[2][1][21]
2. (figurative) Fully formed or developed; mature.^[2][21]
3. (figurative) Ready to give the expected result (of a plan or project).^[2][22]
4. (figurative) No longer young; middle-aged, adult.^[2][1][12]
5. (figurative) Thought over at length; considered, prudent.^[2][21]
6. (informal) Of an abscess, suppurating, ready to burst.^[2][22]
7. Of wine, made from well-ripened grapes.^[2][23]

Noun

1. A person of long experience of life or of a particular field.^[12]
2. (Portugal) A cod fisherman who has already made one or more campaigns off Newfoundland.^[12]
3. (Portugal, informal) A freshman; a simpleton.^[13]

Word family

• madureza
• amadurecer

Related words

• maturo
• madurar
• maturar
• Latin maturus
• Galician maduro

Usage notes

Houaiss enters a separate noun maduro, used in Rio de Janeiro for a fermented drink of cabaú and water, which he explains as probably an alteration of maluvo, the African palm wine;^[2][22] Michaelis also calls it a corruption of maluvo.^[2][22] Maluvo itself is from Kimbundu maluvu.^[24] In north-eastern Brazil maduro is cane juice left in a gourd until it froths.^[25]

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 j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. maduro
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. maturar
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5433
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 760
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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. maduro
8. ^ a b 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. maduro
9. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. maduro
10. ^ 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. maduro
11. ^ 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, 42
12. ^ a b c d 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. maduro
13. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. maduro
14. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. maduro
15. ^ a b Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. maduro
16. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. madureza
17. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. amadurecer
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. maduro
19. ^ 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. maduro
20. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. madurar
21. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. maduro
22. ^ a b c d 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. maduro
23. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5836
24. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. maluvo
25. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. maduro