miraculoso

Forms

miraculoso (feminine miraculosa, masculine plural miraculosos, feminine plural miraculosas, metaphonic)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mīrāculōsus (“marvellous, miraculous”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][5] Niermeyer records the Latin adjective in medieval texts.^[6] Cunha takes it instead as an adaptation of French miraculeux.^[7]

The Latin adjective is formed on mīrāculum (“a marvel, miracle”) with -ōsus, and the noun on mīror (“to wonder at”) with -culum.^[1][8] The inherited outcome of the same noun is milagre, whose own adjective milagroso is the popular doublet of the learned word.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the family to the 15th century from the adverb miraculosamente, and the adjective itself to 1589.^[2] The CTA has an earlier record of the adjective in the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana, in a copy made after 1525;^[10][7] Cunha dates it to the 16th century.^[10][7]

Semantic evolution

From the start it has been a learned synonym of milagroso: Bluteau (1712–1728) and Feijó (1734) simply refer to that word, and so do the modern dictionaries.^[11][12][13] Bluteau's quotations show it used of events judged to be miracles, and the old Aulete adds “marvellous”.^[11][14] The Porto Editora dictionary notes that milagroso is the commoner word.^[15]

Timeline

• 15th century – the adverb miraculosamente (also myraculosamente).^[2]
• after 1525 – the adjective in the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana.^[10]
• 1589 – Houaiss's first date for the adjective.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau refers it to milagroso.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais defines it as milagroso.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. miraculous: worked by a miracle (milagre), or able to work miracles; the same as milagroso: uma cura miraculosa.^[2][4][1]
2. Extraordinary, astonishing, marvellous.^[4][15]

Related words

• milagre
• milagroso
• mirar
• admirar
• Latin mīrāculum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. miraculoso
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. miraculoso
4. ^ 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. miraculoso
5. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. miraculoso
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. miraculosus
7. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. mirar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. miraculum
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. milagroso
10. ^ a b c Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. miraculoso
11. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. miraculoso
12. ^ 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. miraculoso
13. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. miraculoso
14. ^ 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. miraculoso
15. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6204
16. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 303