membro

Forms

membro m or f by sense (plural membros, feminine membra, feminine plural membras)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had membro and menbros beside nembro and nenbro, and nebros in the 14th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin membrum (“limb, part of the body”), written Old Galician-Portuguese membro and nembro in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes considers the modern form learned, and Wiktionary says that this form displaced the older one with n-.^[5][1]

The same Latin word is Galician membro, Spanish miembro, Catalan membre, French membre and Italian membro.^[6][1]

The Latin noun continues Proto-Italic *memzrom.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *mēms-ro- (“body part, meaty part”), with cognates in Old Irish mír (“portion”) and Sanskrit मांस (māṃsá, “meat”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the word is the limbs of the body: Christ had his limbs (nenbros) nailed to the cross, and in another miracle os nembros lles cayan “their limbs fell off”.^[4] One cantiga uses nembro for the old branch of a vine, and figuratively for the penis.^[8]

Semantic evolution

As in Latin, the word passed from a part of the body to any part of a whole.^[2][3] Barbosa (1611) has membro viril, and Morais (1789) the membro of a sentence and the members of a building in architecture.^[9][10] Silva Bastos (1912) gives the person who belongs to a corporation, and the two sides of an equation.^[11] Today a membro is above all a member of a group, a party or an organisation, and a state belonging to a federation or union.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – nenbros, nembros and membro in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and other texts.^[4][2]
• 14th century – the forms nenbro and nebros; the adjective membrudo “big-limbed”.^[3][2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses membro with Latin membrum.^[13]
• 1600 – menbros in a private letter.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists membro viril.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records the member of a sentence.^[10]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the member of a corporation.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) A limb: each of the arms and legs of a person, or the corresponding parts of an animal.^[2][12][1]
2. A person who belongs to a group, party, family or other body; a member: membro da direção.^[2][12][1]
3. A state or body that belongs to a larger organisation or federation.^[2][12]
4. Any part of a whole;^[2][15] (architecture) each part of a building or of an architectural element.^[2][15]
5. (grammar) A part of a sentence.^[2][1]
6. (mathematics) Each side of an equation or inequality.^[2][16]
7. (heraldry) The leg of a bird shown apart from the body.^[2][15]
8. (informal) The penis; also membro viril.^[2][1]

Word family

• membrudo
• desmembrar

Related words

• desmembrado
• membrana
• Latin membrum
• Galician membro
• Spanish miembro

Usage notes

Wiktionary gives the word a feminine form membra in the sense of a person who belongs to a group.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. membro
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. membro
4. ^ a b c 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. nembro
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. membro
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. membrum
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. nembro
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. membro
10. ^ 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, 71
11. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. membro
12. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. membro
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. membro
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. membro
15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. membro
16. ^ 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. membro