magro

Forms

magro (feminine magra, masculine plural magros, feminine plural magras, comparable, comparative mais magro, superlative o mais magro or magríssimo or macérrimo or (sometimes proscribed) magérrimo, diminutive magrinho)^[1] The Cantigas de Santa Maria also have the variant magre.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin macer (“thin, lean”), written Old Galician-Portuguese magro in the oldest texts.^[2][4][5][1]

The same Latin word is Galician magro, Spanish magro, Catalan magre, Occitan magre, French maigre, Italian magro and Romanian macru.^[6][1]

The Latin adjective is from Proto-Italic *makros (“long, lean”) and Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱrós (“long”), from *meh₂ḱ-.^[7][1] Its cognates are Ancient Greek μακρός (makrós, “long”), Old High German magar and Old Norse magr “lean”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1245 has fratri meo Magro “to my brother Magro”, with the word as a byname, and Machado had dated it as a surname to 1265.^[3] As an adjective it appears in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: longu' e magr' e veloso e negro “long and thin and hairy and black”, and ca te vejo magr' andar “for I see you going about thin”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “thin, having little flesh”, said of people and animals, is still the main one.^[3][2] Bluteau in 1712 defines it as the opposite of gordo.^[8] Meat with little fat, and then food and days without meat, followed: Silva Bastos in 1912 and Houaiss record magro for the days on which the Church forbids meat.^[9][2]

Figurative senses, “poor, unproductive” of land and “meagre, scanty” of income or results, are recorded by Aulete and Houaiss.^[2][10] In Portugal leite magro is skimmed milk.^[1][11] In Rio Grande do Sul a magra “the thin one” names death and tuberculosis.^[12] As a surname, Magro began as a nickname.^[13]

Timeline

• 1245 – Magro as a byname in a Latin charter.^[3]
• 13th century – magro and magre in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2][4]
• 15th century – magreza and magriço.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses magro with the Latin macer.^[14]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines magro as the opposite of gordo.^[8]
• 1881 – magricela first recorded, as magrizela.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. thin, lean: having little flesh or fat in proportion to one's frame: um cão magro.^[2][15][1]
2. Of meat or food: having little or no fat: carne magra; of milk, skimmed.^[2][11][1]
3. Long and narrow; slender.^[2]
4. (Catholicism) Of days and meals: without meat.^[2][16]
5. Of land: poor, arid, unproductive.^[2][17]
6. (figurative) Scanty, meagre, of little value: um ordenado magro.^[2][18]
7. (card games) Of a card: of the suits of diamonds or clubs.^[2]

Noun

1. A thin person.^[2][15]
2. The lean part of meat.^[15]

Word family

• magreza
• magricela
• magriço
• magrelo
• magrinho
• magramente

Related words

• emagrecer
• macérrimo
• Latin macer
• Spanish magro

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 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. magro
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. magro
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. magro
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. magro
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. magro
9. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. magro
10. ^ 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. magro
11. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5849
12. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. magro
13. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. 395
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. magro
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. magro
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. magro
17. ^ 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. magro
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. magro