mortal

Forms

mortal m or f (plural mortais, comparable, comparative mais mortal, superlative o mais mortal or mortalíssimo)^[1] Medieval texts have the plural mortaes (1271) and mortaaes (14th century), and the singular is also spelt mortãl and mortall in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mortālis (“subject to death, mortal”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mortal in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin adjective is formed mors (“death”) with the suffix -ālis.^[1][4] Nascentes counts the Portuguese word a learned one, taken over from the written language.^[5] Seen from Portuguese, it is morte with the suffix -al.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician mortal, Spanish mortal, Catalan mortal, French mortel, Italian mortale and Romanian mortal.^[6][1]

De Vaan places the noun among the derivatives of morior (“to die”), from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥-ti- (“death”), built on the root of *mer- (“to die”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the plural mortaes to 1271, from the slips of Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the adjective qualifies feelings and wounds rather than people: coyta mortal “deadly grief”, medo mortal “mortal fear”, chagas mortaes “deadly wounds”, and pecado mortal “mortal sin”.^[8] The Crónica Troiana speaks of a battle that was estrayo… et mao et mortal, “fierce, cruel and deadly”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Both Latin senses, “subject to death” and “causing death”, came into Portuguese together.^[2][4] The religious pecado mortal, a sin that brings the death of the soul, continues a Medieval Latin use of the word.^[8][9] The cantigas d'escarnho also use mortal as an adverb, “mortally”.^[8][10]

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 gives only the Latin equivalent and Pereira (1697) defines it as “that brings death”, while Bluteau (1712) separates the being that can die from the thing that kills, and Folqman (1755) records ódio mortal and inimigo mortal for a deadly hatred and a sworn enemy.^{[11][12][13][14]} The modern dictionaries add the weakened senses “fleeting”, “dying” and “unbearably tedious”, and use the noun for a human being and, in the plural, for mankind.^[2][15][16] From salto mortal the noun also names a somersault in gymnastics and in capoeira.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1271 – the plural mortaes, the first record in Houaiss.^[2]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of coyta mortal and pecado mortal.^[8]
• c. 1430 – first record in the CTA corpus, in the Horto do Esposo.^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary renders it as Latin mortalis.^[11]
• 1712 – Bluteau distinguishes “subject to death” from “that brings death”.^[13]
• 1755 – Folqman lists ódio mortal and inimigo mortal.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Subject to death (morte); that will die one day: Todos os seres vivos são mortais.^[2][15][1]
2. That kills or can kill; lethal (letal), deadly: uma dose mortal.^[2][15][1]
3. (figurative) So intense that it seems able to kill: um tédio mortal.^[2][18]
4. (religion) Of a sin: depriving the soul of grace, as in pecado mortal.^[2][18]
5. Coming from a dead body, in restos mortais “mortal remains”.^[2][18]
6. Short-lived, transitory (transitório).^[2][15]
7. Deep-rooted and implacable: ódio mortal, inimigo mortal.^[2][15]
8. Extremely tedious, unbearable.^[2][15]

Noun

1. A mortal, a human being; in the plural, mankind.^[2][16][1]
2. (gymnastics) A somersault, a salto mortal.^[1]

Word family

• mortalmente
• mortalidade

Related words

• morte
• morrer
• imortal
• Latin mortālis
• Galician mortal

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. mortal
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. morte
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. mortālis
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mortal
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. mortālis
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. mortal
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. mortalis
10. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. mortal2
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mortal
12. ^ 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. mortal
13. ^ 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. mortal
14. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mortal
15. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mortal
16. ^ 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. mortal
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mortal
18. ^ 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. mortal