modelo

Forms

modelo m (plural modelos)^[1] Pereira (1697) also gives the form model.^[2] Post Scriptum has the Italian-looking spelling modello in a letter of 1678.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian modello (“model, pattern”), first recorded in Portuguese in a text of 1562–1575.^[4][5][6][1] Nascentes notes that it came in as a term of the arts.^[7] Older scholars proposed other sources: Adolfo Coelho derived it from Latin modulor (“to measure”), and Figueiredo from the verb modelar.^[7]

The Italian word goes back to *modellus (“small measure, small form”), a diminutive of Latin modulus (“measure, standard”), itself a diminutive of modus (“measure; manner”).^[4][5][1] Nocentini names Italian as the source of French modèle and Spanish modelo too.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first Portuguese record to 1562–1575, close to the first Italian record of modello in the sense “original to be copied” (before 1564, in M. Buonarroti).^[4][9] Morais (1789) defines it as an image to be copied and imitated in painting, sculpture and architecture, usually on a small scale, and as a perfect thing worth imitating.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Italian modelo “kiln mould” already appears in an inventory of 1347 from Modena, and the senses “mould” and “perfect example to imitate” are recorded by the mid-16th century.^[9] Portuguese took the word with the vocabulary of the arts, and the dictionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries gloss it with Latin archetypus and exemplar.^[2][11]

The original Caldas Aulete adds a nautical sense, the small-scale boat a shipbuilder makes for approval, and the figurative “anything that serves as a type to imitate”.^[12] Modern senses came with industry, fashion and science: a type of manufactured product, a designer's garment, a printed form to fill in, a theoretical scheme of a phenomenon in physics or linguistics, and, as a noun of either gender, a person who shows clothes.^[4][13] Before another noun it works as an adjective, “exemplary”.^[14]

Timeline

• 1347 – Italian modelo “kiln mould” in an inventory from Modena.^[9]
• 1562–1575 – first Portuguese record.^[4]
• 16th century – Cunha's date for the word.^[5]
• 1678 – modello in a private letter.^[3]
• 1697 – Pereira lists Modelo, ou model.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais defines the word for painting, sculpture and architecture.^[10]
• 1813 – first record of the verb modelar;^[1] modelagem follows in 1873.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small-scale model of an object or building to be made full size; a maquete.^[4][13]
2. (art) An object or person that an artist reproduces; a figure in clay, wax or plaster to be copied in stone or bronze.^[4][15]
3. (foundry) A pattern or mould (molde) for casting.^[4]
4. A prototype for industrial production; a particular type of a product: Este carro é o modelo mais recente da marca.^[4][1]
5. A garment created by a designer or fashion house.^[4]
6. A printed form (formulário) with blanks to be filled in.^[4]
7. A person or thing that serves as an example to imitate: Ela foi sempre um modelo para os mais novos.^[4][13][14]
8. (science) A theoretical scheme that represents a phenomenon or system and allows predictions.^[4]
9. (masculine or feminine) A person who models clothes, or who poses for artists or photographers; a manequim.^[4][15][1]

Word family

• modelar
• modelagem

Related words

• modo
• módulo
• Italian modello
• Latin modus
• Spanish modelo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. modelo
3. ^ 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. modelo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. modelo
5. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. modelo
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. modelo
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 337
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. modello
9. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. modello
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, 88
11. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. modelo
12. ^ 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. modelo
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. modelo
14. ^ 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. modelo
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. modelo