miúdo

Forms

miúdo (feminine miúda, masculine plural miúdos, feminine plural miúdas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote mẽudo, meudo, miudo and myudo, and Houaiss records mehudo in the 15th century.^[2][3][4] Letters of the 16th and 17th centuries still write meudo.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin minūtus (“diminished; small”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mẽudo in the oldest texts and later Old Galician-Portuguese miudo.^[2][3][1] The Latin word is the past participle of minuō (“to make smaller, diminish”).^[2][6] The oldest form keeps a nasal vowel where Latin had /n/ between vowels.^[3][1]

The same Latin word is Galician miúdo, Spanish menudo, Catalan menut, French menu, Italian minuto and Romanian mărunt.^[7][8] The phrase a miúdo “often” matches Spanish a menudo.^[7][9] Portuguese also has the learned minuto and the French loan menu from the same source.^[1] In popular Latin the participle tended to replace parvus (“small”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is meúdo in 1269.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it of people and things: o poblo grand' e mẽudo “the people great and small”, and mais ca pedra mẽuda “more than fine gravel”.^[4] A document of 1338 already has the commercial pair per grosso e per meudo “wholesale and retail”, and the Crónica Geral speaks of gente meuda, the common soldiers or common people.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From “small” the word came to mean small and numerous things, and then things that happen in quick succession, the sense of a miúdo and of the verb amiudar.^[2][11] Bluteau (1712–1728) records gado miudo “small livestock”, povo miudo “common people”, caça miuda “small game” and letras miudas “small letters”, and also a figurative sense, “someone who pays attention to the smallest things”.^[12] From this careful attention came the senses “meticulous” and, in popular use, “stingy”.^[11][13]

As a noun the masculine plural miúdos names small change and the edible innards of animals, and trocar em miúdos “to change into small coins” means to explain something plainly.^[2][14] In Portugal and in Rio Grande do Sul miúdo and miúda are everyday words for a child.^[2][15][16]

Timeline

• 1269 – first record, spelt meúdo.^[2]
• 13th century – mẽudo and meudo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][3]
• 1338 – per grosso e per meudo “wholesale and retail” in a commercial document.^[4]
• 15th century – the spelling mehudo.^[2]
• 1503 – meudo in a private letter, a spelling still found in 1630.^[5]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau lists gado miudo, povo miudo and caça miuda.^[12]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira's dictionary defines the adjective as the opposite of graúdo.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very small; made up of small parts: areia miúda.^[2][11][1]
2. Of livestock: small, such as sheep, goats and pigs: gado miúdo.^[2][11]
3. Frequent, coming in quick succession.^[2][15]
4. Meticulous, attentive to the smallest details.^[2][16]
5. (popular) stingy, mean.^[2][13]
6. Of money: in coins or low notes.^[2][11]

Noun

1. (Portugal, Rio Grande do Sul) A child, a little boy; the feminine miúda is a little girl.^[2][16][1]
2. (in the plural) The edible offal of animals, such as liver, gizzard and kidneys; miudezas.^[2][1]
3. (in the plural) Small change, coins of little value.^[14]

Word family

• amiúde
• amiudar
• miudeza

Related words

• minuto
• menu
• minúcia
• diminuir
• Latin minūtus
• Galician miúdo
• Spanish menudo

Usage notes

A miúdo means “often” (also written amiúde), por miúdo or pelo miúdo “in detail”, and trocar em miúdos “to explain plainly”.^[2][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. miúdo
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. minúcia
4. ^ 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. meudo
5. ^ a b 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. miúdo
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. minūtus
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5600
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. minutus
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. menudo
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. menu
11. ^ a b c d e 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. miúdo
12. ^ 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. miúdo
13. ^ 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. miúdo
14. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6228
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. miúdo
16. ^ a b c 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. miúdo
17. ^ 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, 275