mote

Forms

mote m (plural motes)^[1] Cunha records the variant moto in the 15th century, before mote itself.^[2] Houaiss enters moto as a separate, obsolete headword for the knights' device and as a synonym of mote.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan mot (“word, short saying”), or the French mot, which is recorded from the 10th century.^[4][2][1] The Occitan and French word continues Late Latin muttum (“a sound, a mutter”), a back-formation from Latin muttiō (“to mutter, make inarticulate sounds”), a verb of onomatopoeic origin.^[4][5][1] Cunha starts from a popular Latin *mottum, an alteration of the Latin word, to account for the /o/ of the Romance forms.^[2] Lucilius already uses the Latin noun in a phrase meaning “he does not dare to say a word”.^[6]

The same word is Catalan mot and Italian motto, which the REW, like the Spanish and Portuguese forms, derives from the Gallo-Romance word, and Spanish mote as well.^[7] Houaiss notes that the word came into Portuguese in the medieval senses “satirical saying”, “chivalric device” and “short sentence in verse”.^[4] Silva Bastos derived it from the Italian word instead.^[8] Bluteau already took it from the French word for “word”.^[9]

Houaiss dates the derivative motejar “to mock” to 1346, earlier than his first record of the noun (1553).^[10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CTA's first record of mote is in the Vida do Duque Antíoco, in a witness of 1475–1500.^[11] Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary of 1569 renders the word by Latin epigramma, a short poem or inscription.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th and 18th centuries the word meant above all a witty or biting remark: Pereira (1697) glosses it with Latin dicterium and scomma, “a gibe”, and Bluteau defines it as a gallant or jesting saying that moves to laughter, and also as the brief, ingenious sentence knights bore in tournaments.^[13][9] Morais (1789) puts first the poetic sense, a short sentence given to a poet in one or more lines to be expanded and glossed, then the satirical remark, the knights' device and the epigraph at the head of a book.^[14]

Houaiss notes that the poetic mote, a stanza set before a poem as its theme, was much cultivated by Renaissance and Baroque poets and then fell out of use.^[4] The modern language keeps it chiefly as “theme, subject” and “motto, watchword”, and in heraldry for the device of a coat of arms.^[4][15][16]

Timeline

• 15th century – Cunha records the form moto.^[2]
• 1475–1500 – mote in the Vida do Duque Antíoco.^[11]
• 1553 – Houaiss's first date for mote.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates mote by Latin epigramma.^[12]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it “gibe” (dicterium, scomma).^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau derives it from French mot and gives the senses “witty saying” and “device in a tournament”.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais defines the poetic mote to be glossed.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literature) A short theme of one or more lines set before a poem, which the stanzas of the poem expand, each usually ending with one of its lines; compare glosa.^[4][17][16]
2. Any saying or short sentence that a writer takes as the starting point or summary of a work.^[4]
3. An epigraph at the head of a book.^[4][15]
4. A satirical or mocking remark; motejo.^[4][18]
5. The subject or theme of something, such as a conversation.^[4][19]
6. A motto or watchword: originally the words a knight took as his device, now any guiding principle.^[4][15]
7. (heraldry) The device of a coat of arms.^[4][15]

Word family

• motejar
• motejo

Related words

• moto
• French mot
• Italian motto
• Spanish mote

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. mote
3. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. moto
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. mote
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. mot
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. mote
9. ^ 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. mote
10. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. motejar
11. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mote
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mote
13. ^ a b 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. mote
14. ^ 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, 100
15. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mote
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. mote
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mote
18. ^ 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. mote
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6338