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marquês

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word marquês

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1200s Cantigas de Santa Maria More words from the 13th century
Borrowed from
Occitan marques
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *markō

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /maʁˈke(j)s/, [mahˈke(ɪ̯)s][1]
  • São-Paulo: /maɾˈke(j)s/, [maɾˈke(ɪ̯)s][1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /maʁˈke(j)ʃ/, [maχˈke(ɪ̯)ʃ][1]
  • Caipira: /maɻˈke(j)s/, [maɻˈke(ɪ̯)s][1]

Forms

marquês m (plural marqueses, feminine marquesa, feminine plural marquesas)[1] The medieval spelling is marques;[2][3] Houaiss dates marquêz to 1716.[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.[3] According to Cunha it is borrowed from Old Occitan marques;[3] the DLP, Aurélio and Michaelis also derive it from Occitan.[4][5][6] Machado considered a borrowing from Spanish marqués more likely,[3] and Priberam and the Porto dictionary give the Spanish word as its source.[7][8] The DDGM and Wiktionary combine the two: the Occitan word came through Old Spanish marques.[2][1] Nascentes instead derived it from a Late Latin markense (“governor of a march”).[9]

The DLP derives the Occitan word from its noun for a frontier region,[4] which Cunha traces to Late Latin marca and that to Germanic.[10] The Germanic word is Proto-Germanic *markō (“boundary, region”), with a cognate in Old English mearc;[11][1] Kroonen traces it to Proto-Indo-European *morǵ-eh₂, related to Latin margō (“edge, border”).[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cantiga 281 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria names the ranks duc nen conde nen marques, “neither duke nor count nor marquis”.[2][3] The Miragres de Santiago tell of four marqueses de terra de Italia coming to help Charlemagne.[2] In the Middle Ages the word meant the lord of a march, a frontier territory.[2]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss gives as the oldest senses the lord or military chief who guarded the marches of a state, and the title that went with a marquisate; in the modern sense it is the title between duke and count.[3] Barbosa (1611) renders it with Latin marchio.[12]

Regional Portuguese uses the word for a black grape variety of the Minho, for a hard wheat of the south and for half a quartilho of wine.[4][8] A local dictionary of 1957 records it for a quarter of a litre, and one of 1964 for an all-white ox.[13]

Timeline

  • 1200s – marques in cantiga 281 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[2][3]
  • 1455 – Machado's first date, as Lorenzo gives it.[2]
  • 1544 – marques in a private letter.[14]
  • 1611 – Barbosa enters Marques with Latin marchio.[12]
  • 1716 – the spelling marquêz.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. marquis: a title of nobility below duque and above conde.[3][4][1]
  2. A man who holds that title.[3][4]
  3. (historical) The lord or military chief who guarded a march (marca), a frontier province.[3][6]
  4. (Portugal, regional) A black grape variety of the Minho.[4][8]
  5. (Portugal, regional) A hard wheat grown in the south.[4]
  6. (Portugal, regional) Half a quartilho (a measure of wine).[4][8]

Word family

  • marquesado

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 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. marques
  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. marquês
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. marquês
  5. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. marquês
  6. ^ 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. marquês
  7. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. marquês
  8. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5975
  9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. marquês
  10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. marca
  11. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 355
  12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. marques
  13. ^ 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. marquês
  14. ^ 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. marquês

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Marquês.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/marqu%C3%AAs. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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