merda

Forms

merda f (plural merdas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin merda (“dung, excrement”), written Old Galician-Portuguese merda in the medieval language.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician merda, Spanish mierda, Catalan merda, French merde and Italian merda, and it survives in almost every Romance language.^[5][6][1] The Spanish form is first recorded in 1495.^[7]

In Latin the word is found from Horace on.^[8][9] De Vaan reconstructs *(s)merdā and *smerd-h₂- (“stench”), a collective noun “what stinks” that came to mean “excrement”, and compares Lithuanian smirdėti (“to stink”) and Latvian smards (“smell”).^[8] Wiktionary adds *smordъ (“stink”) and takes the collective from a root *(s)merd- (“to bite, sting”).^[1] Lewis and Short still called the origin doubtful.^[10]

Bluteau found the etymological speculation about the word a dirty curiosity, set aside the Greek derivations of earlier authors, and reported only Scaliger's derivation from a supposed old Latin word for dung, adding that Ménage could not find the passage of Seneca that Scaliger cited.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first Portuguese record to 1255, from Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese texts.^[2] Cunha's own dictionary gives only the 16th century.^[3] Morais records an old legal use: merda em boca, the insult of putting excrement in someone's mouth, which the old town charters (forais) punished with fines.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

The first dictionaries simply translate the word with Latin merda and excrementum.^[14][15] Morais defines it as human excrement, and Vieira calls it a low and coarse term, used figuratively for a thing of no importance; he also records merda do diabo “devil's dung”, a name for asafoetida because of its foul smell.^[12][13]

Silva Bastos in 1912 records the masculine use for a weak or contemptible person, and the original Caldas Aulete the interjection of contempt.^[16][17] Today Houaiss marks every sense as taboo: excrement, filth, a worthless thing or person, and an exclamation of anger or disappointment.^[2] In the theatre the interjection wishes the actors good luck just before the curtain rises.^[2][18][19] Brazilian Portuguese has the phrases de merda “worthless”, fazer merda “to blunder” and estar na merda “to be broke”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1255 – first record, in Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses merda with Latin merda and excrementum.^[14]
• 1607 – the word appears in a private letter of that year or earlier.^[20]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau discusses the older etymologies of the word.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais records merda em boca as an insult punished in the old charters.^[12]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira records the figurative sense “thing of no importance” and merda do diabo “asafoetida”.^[13]
• 1873 – first record of the derivative merdícola;^[3] merdívoro follows in 1899.^[3]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the masculine noun “contemptible person”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (vulgar) excrement, faeces.^[2][21][1]
2. (vulgar) filth; rubbish that piles up somewhere and dirties it.^[2][18]
3. (vulgar) A worthless or repulsive thing; a piece of junk.^[2][22][1]
4. (vulgar, informal) Nonsense; a foolish act.^[1]
5. (vulgar, figurative) A mess, a difficult situation;^[2][1] (Brazil) estar na merda, to be broke.^[2][1]
6. (vulgar, masculine or feminine) A worthless or contemptible person.^[2][18][1]

Interjection

1. (vulgar) An exclamation of anger, contempt, impatience or disappointment.^[2][18]
2. (theatre) Said among actors before going on stage, to wish one another good luck.^[2][18][19]

Adjective

1. (vulgar, informal) Worthless, shitty.^[1]

Word family

• merdinha
• merdimbuca
• merdícola
• merdívoro

Related words

• Latin merda
• Spanish mierda

Usage notes

Houaiss labels all the senses taboo and Porto Editora calls the word a vulgarism; in writing it is sometimes disguised as m*rda.^[2][22][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. merda
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. merda
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. merda
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. merda
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. 327
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mierda
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. merda
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. merda
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. merda
12. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 291
13. ^ a b c 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, 210
14. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. merda
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. merda
16. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. merda
17. ^ 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. merda
18. ^ a b c d e 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. merda
19. ^ 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. merda
20. ^ 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. merda
21. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. merda
22. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6098