meu

Forms

meu (feminine minha, masculine plural meus, feminine plural minhas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had meu and meus beside meheu, meos and mios for the masculine.^[2] The feminine was mia (mya), with the unstressed forms mha and ma, and later minna and minha;^[3][4][5] Houaiss records mias in 1255, ma in 1265, mha and mia in 1269, and minha from the 14th century.^[3][4][5] Wiktionary lists mou, miou, mei and meo as alternative forms, and Vieira (1871–1874) still heads the word meu, ou meo.^[1][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin meus (“my, mine”), written Old Galician-Portuguese meu in the oldest texts.^[2][7][1][8] The feminine minha comes from the Vulgar Latin form mia, for classical mea.^[4] Carolina Michaëlis traced it back to the Latin form through a stage with a nasal vowel.^[9] The unstressed Old Galician-Portuguese mia, said as one syllable with a rising diphthong, lost its /i/ and gave Old Galician-Portuguese ma, while the form with the nasal vowel became the modern one.^[9][5]

The same Latin word is Galician meu, Spanish mío, Catalan meu, French mien and Italian mio;^[10][1] Spanish, French and Catalan also kept unstressed forms such as Spanish mi and French mon.^[10][1]

The Latin possessive goes back to *meos.^[1] The OLD analyses it as the stem of ego (“I”) with the adjective ending, and compares the Hittite possessive -meš.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's earliest date, 1061, for the form mia, is taken from Machado, who had dated meu itself to 1214.^[2][12] Lorenzo antedates the masculine to 1193, in o meu corpo... cono meu corpo “my body... with my body”.^[12] In the cantigas the word is used with and without the article: deus meu senhor, meu coraçon, o meu conhocer.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval lyric the substantivised o meu meant one's own situation, interests or fortune.^[12] The feminine minha appears only twice in the oldest part of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda, both times standing alone; elsewhere the proclitic mia is the rule, as in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (mia companneira, mia lança), and the usage minha senhor of the later songbooks already points to the modern one.^[9][5]

Feijó (1734) preferred the spelling meu to mêo, though he heard the diphthong as close to an /o/.^[13] Bluteau (1712–1728) records proverbs such as meu dito, meu feito and the phrase sou muito meu, “I depend on no one”.^[14] In modern use the possessive also refers to what suits or serves the speaker, to what is due to them, to their favourites and, with the article, to someone already mentioned; it expresses affection in address, and os meus are one's family and friends.^[2][15][16] In Brazilian slang, chiefly of São Paulo, meu! is a call for attention or a cry of surprise, and in Portugal it is a colloquial form of address.^[1][17] A Portuguese dialect survey records meu in the popular sense “my husband”.^[18]

Timeline

• 1061 – the feminine mia, as Houaiss dates it after Machado.^[2]
• 1193 – o meu corpo in a text cited by Lorenzo.^[12]
• 1255 – the feminine plural mias.^[3]
• 1264 – mhas; 1265 – ma.^[2]
• 14th century – the feminine minha.^[3]
• 1529 – the form mei.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro glosses meu with Latin meus, a, um.^[19]
• 1734 – Feijó discusses the spellings meu and mêo.^[13]

Meanings

Determiner

1. my: belonging to, felt by or relating to the speaker: o meu irmão mais novo.^[2][1][20]
2. That the speaker enjoys as if it were their own: vou passar o meu domingo no campo.^[2][21]
3. That serves, suits or interests the speaker; due to the speaker: o meu autocarro.^[2][16]
4. Preferred by the speaker; that the speaker usually goes to: o meu café de sempre.^[2][16]
5. That, the said (of someone already mentioned or about to be).^[2][15]
6. Dear, used in affection or deference in address: meu amigo, meu capitão.^[2][15][20]

Pronoun

1. mine: essa caneta é minha; with the article, the one belonging to me.^[1][2]
2. o meu: what belongs to the speaker;^[2][15] os meus: the speaker's family, friends or supporters.^[2][15]

Interjection

1. (Brazil, slang, chiefly São Paulo) hey, used to call someone's attention; also an exclamation of surprise.^[1]
2. (Portugal, colloquial) mate, a form of address.^[17][1]

Related words

• teu
• seu
• eu
• mim
• nosso
• vosso
• Galician meu

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. meu
3. ^ a b c d Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. minha
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. minha
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. mia
6. ^ 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, 228
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. meu
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. meu
9. ^ 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. minha
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5556
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. meus
12. ^ a b c d e 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. meu
13. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. meu
14. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. meu
15. ^ a b c d e 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. meu
16. ^ a b c 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. meu
17. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6143
18. ^ 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. meu
19. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. meu
20. ^ a b 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. meu
21. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. meu