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manteiga

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word manteiga

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1269 More words from the 13th century

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /mɐ̃ˈte(j).ɡɐ/, [mɐ̃ˈte(ɪ̯).ɡɐ][1]
  • Portugal: /mɐ̃ˈtɐj.ɡɐ/, [mɐ̃ˈtɐj.ɣɐ][1]
  • Northern, Portugal: /mɐ̃ˈtej.ɡɐ/, [mɐ̃ˈtej.ɣɐ][1]
  • Central, Portugal: /mɐ̃ˈtej.ɡɐ/, [mɐ̃ˈtej.ɣɐ][1]

Forms

manteiga f (plural manteigas)[1] Houaiss records the medieval spellings manteiiga (1365), manteigua and manteyga (15th century).[2] A private letter of 1544 writes mamteyga.[3]

Etymology

It is Old Galician-Portuguese manteiga in the oldest texts, a word of uncertain origin that the dictionaries agree is probably pre-Roman.[2][4][5][1] The same word is Galician manteiga, Mirandese manteiga, Catalan mantega and Spanish manteca, and it is found nowhere else in Romance except Sardinia, southern Italy and Romania, where Corominas takes it for a loan from Spain.[6][1]

Corominas points out that the three Ibero-Romance forms need three different bases, ⟨-ecca⟩ for Castilian, ⟨-eca⟩ for Catalan and ⟨-aica⟩ or ⟨-eica⟩ for Portuguese, which may reflect three native dialects.[6][7] He suggests it may be Indo-European and related to *sъmetana (“sour cream”), and doubts that the Sanskrit word for butter that earlier writers had quoted exists at all.[7][2][1] Wiktionary considers a Paleo-Hispanic source such as Iberian or Celtiberian.[1]

Older proposals were Latin: Cornu derived it from a form *nattatica of Vulgar Latin *natta (“cream”), an idea Nascentes found the most acceptable in spite of the unexplained change of the first consonant, and Meyer-Lübke in the REW followed Diez in taking it from Latin mantica (“saddlebag”), the bag in which the butter was first made.[8][9] Vieira in 1873 took it from Italian, and Silva Bastos from Castilian.[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin document of 1118 already writes inter manteiga et melle et pigmenta “among butter and honey and spices”, with the Romance noun inside the Latin.[12] In the vernacular Houaiss dates the word to 1269.[2] Alfonso X mocks a man in a cantiga d'escarnho as chus mol é que manteiga “softer than butter”, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria use the same comparison for a soft head.[12][13] The sense was butter made from cream.[12]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant butter from the first records, and the old dictionaries render it with Latin butyrum.[14][15] Bluteau in 1712 describes it as the third substance of milk, neither watery like whey nor solid like cheese, and adds manteiga crua made from curd.[16][17] Morais adds manteiga de porco, melted pork fat.[16][17]

The name was extended to other fats: the fatty substance of certain plants (manteiga de cacau), any vegetable or animal oil in Amazonia, and in old chemistry certain easily fusible metal chlorides.[2][18] Figurative and informal senses are flattery (dar manteiga “to flatter”), a person who cries or takes offence at nothing, and in Brazilian slang a head start given to an opponent.[2][19][20] Varieties of bean, mango, cabbage and wheat are also called manteiga.[2]

The word was carried to Asia and Brazil: mentega in Malay and Indonesian, manteiga in Tetum and mantega in Nheengatu.[1]

Timeline

  • 1118 – manteiga in a Latin document.[12]
  • 1269 – first vernacular record according to Houaiss.[2]
  • 13th century – Alfonso X's cantiga d'escarnho compares a man to butter.[12]
  • 1365 – the spelling manteiiga.[2]
  • c. 1450 – manteiga in the Livro das tres vertudes.[21]
  • 1569 – Cardoso glosses manteiga with Latin butyrum.[14]
  • 1712 – Bluteau describes manteiga crua.[16]
  • 1813 – first record of amanteigado.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. butter, the solid fat obtained by churning the cream of milk: Passa-me a manteiga para o pão.[2][22][1]
  2. A fatty substance obtained from certain plants: manteiga de cacau, manteiga de amendoim.[2][23]
  3. (Portugal, regional) Melted pork fat, lard.[19][23][20]
  4. (Amazonia) Any vegetable or animal oil or fat.[2][22]
  5. (chemistry, obsolete) Any of certain metal chlorides, such as that of antimony.[2][18]
  6. (figurative, informal) flattery used to gain an advantage.[2][23]
  7. (informal) A person who cries or takes offence at the slightest thing.[19][18]
  8. (Brazil, slang) An advantage or head start given to a competitor.[2][22]
  9. (agriculture) A name for varieties of bean, mango, cabbage and wheat.[2][24]

Word family

  • amanteigado
  • amanteigar
  • feijão-manteiga
  • manteigaria
  • manteigueira
  • manteigueiro
  • Galician manteiga
  • Spanish manteca
  • Catalan mantega

Usage notes

Dar manteiga a alguém means to flatter someone, usually for some gain.[23][20] Ser manteiga em focinho de cão, “to be butter on a dog's snout”, is said of something good that will not last.[20]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. manteiga
  3. ^ 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. manteiga
  4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. manteiga
  5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. manteiga
  6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 824
  7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. manteca
  8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 316
  9. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. manteiga
  10. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 108
  11. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. manteiga
  12. ^ a b c d e 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. manteiga
  13. ^ 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. manteiga
  14. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. manteiga
  15. ^ 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. manteiga
  16. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. manteiga
  17. ^ 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, 54
  18. ^ 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. manteiga
  19. ^ 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. manteiga
  20. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5928
  21. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. manteiga
  22. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. manteiga
  23. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. manteiga
  24. ^ 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. manteiga
Cite this entry

“Manteiga.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/manteiga. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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