medo

Forms

medo m (plural medos)^[1] Houaiss records the 15th-century spellings meddo and medom.^[2] Folqman in 1755 writes it with a circumflex, mêdo, to mark the closed vowel.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin metus (“fear”), written Old Galician-Portuguese medo in the cantigas.^[2][4][1][5] The closed /e/ of the stressed vowel, which was short in Latin, is explained by metaphony, the influence of the final /u/.^[6]

The same Latin word is Galician medo and Spanish miedo; the Spanish one is first recorded about 1140.^[1][7] Corominas compares the Spanish medroso (“fearful”) and the Portuguese medorento, both built on the model of the Latin word for “frightful”.^[7]

The Latin noun, found from Naevius on and sometimes feminine in early poetry, is of unknown origin.^[8][9][1] De Vaan reports Klingenschmitt's comparison with Old Irish moth (“astonishment”), attractive in sense but without an account of the sounds.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 921 already has neque pertimeisentis medum, with the Romance form of the noun, and another of 1041 et medum.^[5] The vernacular word is recorded from the 13th century.^[2][4] The cantigas have it in the sense “fear”: gran med'ei que ti querra fazer mal “I greatly fear that he will want to do you harm”, and the Crónica Troiana says tomaron gran pauor et gran medo “they took great dread and great fear”.^[10][5]

Semantic evolution

The cantigas have a gran medo “in great fear”, and Morais records a medo “fearfully”, quoting Ferreira's Castro: Lograva como a medo os meus amores “I enjoyed my love as if in fear”.^[10][11] Morais also gives the old medo que cai em varão constante, a fear that would move even a steadfast man, and the figurative “cause of fear”.^[11] Bluteau described it in the medicine of his time: the blood, the spirits and the natural heat withdraw to the heart.^[12]

Derivatives followed early: medorento in the 13th century, medonho “frightful” in the 14th, amedrontar “to frighten” in the 16th.^[4] In informal use a medo is also a frightening apparition, a ghost.^[2]

Timeline

• 921 – medum in a Latin charter.^[5]
• 13th century – first vernacular records, in the cantigas;^[2][4] medorento is of the same century.^[2][4]
• 1350 – the Trasladação de S. Nicolau (copied in the 14th century) uses the word.^[13]
• 14th century – first record of medonho.^[4]
• 15th century – the spellings meddo and medom.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses it with Latin timor and formido.^[14]
• 1755 – Folqman writes mêdo.^[3]
• 1813 – Morais records a medo “fearfully”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. fear, the emotion roused by a sense of danger.^[2][15]
2. Fear of something in particular, rational or not; dread: medo do escuro.^[2][16]
3. Worry, the wish to avoid something unpleasant: medo de falhar.^[2]
4. (informal) A frightening apparition; a ghost.^[2]

Word family

• medonho
• medorento
• medroso
• amedrontar

Related words

• Latin metus
• Galician medo
• Spanish miedo

Usage notes

Common phrases are a medo “hesitantly”, ter medo da própria sombra “to be afraid of one's own shadow” and pelar-se de medo “to be terrified”.^[2]

Two minor homographs are pronounced with an open /ɛ/.^[1][15] Medo “dune”, a back-formation from médão, is dated to the 16th century by Houaiss.^[2] Michaelis derives it from Spanish médano, and Ciberdúvidas stresses that it is not the word for fear.^[17][18] Medo “Median, of ancient Media”, from Latin Mēdus, is recorded from the 14th century.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. medo
3. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. medo
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. medo
5. ^ a b c d 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. medo
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. 323
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. miedo
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. metus
10. ^ a b 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. medo
11. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 281
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. medo
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. medo
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. medo
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. medo
16. ^ 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. medo
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. medo
18. ^ Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa, ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, https://ciberduvidas.iscte-iul.pt, p. s.v. medo