mudo

Forms

mudo (feminine muda, masculine plural mudos, feminine plural mudas, not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mūtus (“dumb, speechless”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mudo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Houaiss dates the adjective to the 13th century and its use as a noun to the 15th.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician mudo, Spanish mudo, Catalan mut, Italian muto and Romanian mut.^[5][6][1] French muet is a diminutive of Old French mu, the old adjective, which went out of use in the 16th century.^[7][8]

For de Vaan the Latin word meant at first one who can utter nothing but /muː/, from an imitative root also found in mūgiō (“to low”), with cognates such as मूक (mū́ka, “dumb”).^[9][1] Wiktionary sets up Proto-Indo-European *mewH- (“to mutter, say mu”).^[1] Bluteau, in 1712, already related the word to Latin mutire “to mutter”, saying that mutes who wish to speak usually utter /mu/.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use the word of animals, as bestias mudas “the dumb beasts”, and of people: a man who lay çego e ar mudo sen fala “blind and dumb, without speech”, and one who era sordo e mudo “was deaf and dumb” until the Virgin healed him.^[3] The Cancioneiro da Ajuda glosses it “without speech”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Already in the cantigas a lover says he goes about mudo, silent for love.^[11] The Crónica Geral tells of a man called Pero Mudo because he stammered.^[3] Morais (1789) records a night muda de vento, without wind, a letra muda, a consonant whose name holds no vowel, and a representação muda without speech.^[12] Later senses are a telephone or a set that gives no sound, a theatre scene without dialogue, and, in the 20th century, the silent cinema, cinema mudo.^[2][13] Silva Bastos and the DLP also record mudo as the name of a popular game.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – as bestias mudas and sordo e mudo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• 1344 – the chronicle the DDGM cites as Cr. 1344 explains the name of Pero Mudo.^[3]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo uses the word.^[16]
• 15th century – first use as a noun, “a mute”.^[2]
• 1572 – Camões, in canto V of Os Lusíadas, describes a people quasi mudo to the Portuguese.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau relates the word to Latin mutire.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais records letra muda and noite muda de vento.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. mute, unable to speak, born without or having lost the power of speech; of animals, having no voice.^[2][18][1]
2. Unwilling to speak or answer; calado, silent.^[2][19]
3. Speechless for a moment, from fear or strong feeling: ficou mudo de espanto.^[2][18]
4. Expressed without words; unspoken, hidden: um protesto mudo.^[2][18]
5. (of a device) Giving no sound, from a fault.^[2][20]
6. (figurative) Gloomy, taciturn.^[2][19]
7. (theatre) Without dialogue;^[2][13] (cinema) without a recorded soundtrack: o cinema mudo.^[2][13]
8. (grammar) Of a letter or syllable, written but not pronounced.^[19][1]

Noun

1. A person who cannot speak.^[2][15][1]
2. A popular game.^[15][14]

Word family

• mudez
• mudamente
• emudecer

Related words

• Latin mūtus
• Spanish mudo

Usage notes

Mudo e quedo is an informal phrase for “silent and still”.^[2] The same spelling is also the first person singular present of mudar “to change”, a different word.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mudo
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. mudo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mudo
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5798
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. mutus
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. muet
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 345
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. mudo
11. ^ 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. mudo
12. ^ 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, 102
13. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mudo
14. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. mudo
15. ^ 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. mudo
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mudo
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, 346
18. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mudo
19. ^ a b c 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. mudo
20. ^ 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. mudo
21. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. mudo