maior

Forms

maior m or f (plural maiores)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote maior and mayor, with the contracted forms maor, moor and later mor.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin maior (“greater”), the comparative of magnus (“great”), written Old Galician-Portuguese maior and Old Galician-Portuguese mayor in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] The contracted Old Galician-Portuguese maor and Old Galician-Portuguese moor gave mor, kept in titles such as monteiro-mor; the learned major is another doublet.^[3][2][1]

The same Latin word is Spanish mayor, Catalan major, Italian maggiore and French majeur, and the Latin nominative gave French maire “mayor”.^[5][1][6]

The Latin comparative goes back to *majjōs and *méǵh₂yōs, formed from *meǵh₂- (“great”) with the comparative suffix.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1082 has the place name in uilla maior.^[3] The testament of Afonso II (1214) says o maior filio que ouuer... a maior filia “the eldest son he may have... the eldest daughter”.^[3] The troubadours use it as the comparative of grande: a fremosa a que me quer' eu mayor ben “the beautiful one I love more”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the word was already both a comparative and a title: a cellarario maior (chief cellarer) in 1257, a monteiro maior (chief huntsman) in the cantigas d'amigo, which is today's monteiro-mor.^[3] The Cantigas de Santa Maria pair mayores e meores “great and small”.^[3]

Morais (1789) records the legal sense “of age”, a person no longer under a guardian, and the major premise of a syllogism.^[8] The plural maiores came to mean “ancestors”.^[9][10] In informal Brazilian Portuguese it is a plain intensive, “great, very big”, and also an adverb “very”.^[1] In music it means “major”.^[1]

Timeline

• 1082 – in uilla maior in a Latin charter.^[3]
• 1214 – o maior filio in the testament of Afonso II.^[3]
• 1255 – Houaiss's first date for the adjective.^[2]
• 1257 – cellarario maior “chief cellarer”.^[3]
• 1265 – first record of the contracted moor.^[3]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses Maior with Latin maior.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais records maior “of age” and the logical sense.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (comparative of grande) bigger, larger, greater: Esta sala é maior do que a outra.^[2][1]
2. (with the definite article) The biggest, the greatest: o maior rio do país.^[2][1]
3. Greater in importance; chief, principal: força maior.^[2][12]
4. Of age, having reached the legal age of majority: maior de idade.^[2][13]
5. Older than a given age: maior de dezoito anos.^[13]
6. (music) major.^[1]
7. (Brazil, informal) Big, great; also as an adverb, very.^[1]
8. (noun) A person who has come of age.^[14]
9. (noun, plural) ancestors.^[10]
10. (logic, noun, feminine) The major premise of a syllogism.^[14][12]

Word family

• maioria
• maioridade
• maiormente

Related words

• mor
• major
• magno
• grande
• Latin maior
• Spanish mayor

Usage notes

Maior serves as the comparative of grande, with the sense of mais grande.^[14] Informal phrases: estar na maior “to be relaxed, carefree”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. maior
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. maior
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. maior
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 311
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. maior
8. ^ 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, 43
9. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. maior
10. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5852
11. ^ 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. maior
12. ^ a b 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. maior
13. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. maior
14. ^ 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. maior