mau

Forms

mau (feminine má, masculine plural maus, feminine plural más, comparable, comparative pior, superlative o pior or péssimo)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote mao, feminine maa, also maao.^[2] Houaiss records maas, mááos and maos in the 13th century and mãa in the 14th.^[3] The dictionaries spell the word mao from Cardoso to Bluteau, and Vieira still heads it mao, ou mau.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin malus (“bad”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mao in the oldest texts.^[3][1][7][2] The Latin -l- between vowels is lost in the Galician-Portuguese form, which has the same shape in Galician, beside the Spanish form with -l-.^[8]

The same Latin word is Galician mao, Spanish malo, Catalan mal, French mal and Italian malo.^[9][1]

The Latin word goes back to *malo-;^[10] Oscan had a word of the same meaning.^[10] A link with *mol-o- (“bad”) and with μέλεος (méleos, “idle; unhappy”) and mẽlas (“lie”) has been proposed, but de Vaan considers it uncertain, since these are isolated words in different branches.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century.^[3] The Cantigas de Santa Maria already use it of people and of things: mui maa noite “a very bad night”, maos sabores, and lugar mao.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts have the word for what is evil and cruel and for what is hard: mao de contar in the Crónica Troiana means “hard to tell”, and the cantigas d'amor have seer mau de “to be difficult”.^[2] The phrases en mao ponto and en mao dia expressed bad luck, and notarial deeds of 1390 promise to keep a contract sem mao engano “without deceit”.^[2]

Bluteau's examples speak of a wicked man and of evil ways.^[5] Modern dictionaries add a person who does a job badly, poor quality in things, and a sense “naughty” said of children.^[3][11] The word is also a noun, “a bad person”, and an interjection of disapproval.^[1][12] It passed into Kabuverdianu and Guinea-Bissau Creole as mau.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, spelt mao, maas and maos.^[3][2]
• 1390 – sem mao engano in notarial deeds of Noia.^[2]
• 1513 – the spelling mau in the Livro dos Mártires.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary heads the word mao.^[4]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau heads it mao.^[5]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira gives both spellings, mao, ou mau.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. bad, of poor quality; faulty, badly made: um mau vinho.^{[3][11][12][1]}
2. evil, wicked; given to doing harm: um homem mau.^[3][11][1]
3. Unkind, bad-tempered: mau feitio.^[3]
4. harmful; that does harm to others or oneself: um mau conselho.^[3][11][1]
5. Not good at what one does: um mau aluno.^[3][12]
6. Hard to overcome or to bear: um caminho mau.^[3][14]
7. Unfortunate, ominous: más notícias.^[3][11]
8. (of children) naughty.^[11]

Noun

1. A bad person;^[3][12][1] o mau: the bad thing.^[3][12][1]

Interjection

1. An exclamation of disapproval or disappointment: Mau!^[12][14]

Word family

• má-criação
• má-formação
• mau-olhado
• maus-tratos
• mauzinho

Related words

• mal
• mal-
• maldade
• maldição
• maltratar
• Latin malus
• Galician mao
• Spanish malo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. mao
3. ^ 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. mau
4. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mao
5. ^ 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. mao
6. ^ a b 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, 113
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mau
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. malus
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5273
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. malus
11. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mau
12. ^ a b c d e f 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. mau
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mau
14. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mau