mulher

Forms

mulher f (plural mulheres)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote molier, muller and molher.^[2][3][1] Bluteau (1712–1728) heads the word mulher, ou molher and Folqman (1755) still refers mulher to molher.^[4][5] Wiktionary lists the informal forms muié and mulé.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mulier (“woman”), written Old Galician-Portuguese molier, Old Galician-Portuguese muller and Old Galician-Portuguese molher in the oldest texts.^[6][2][3][1] The Latin word was taken in the oblique form mulierem.^[1][7]

The same Latin word is Galician muller, Mirandese mulhier, Spanish mujer, Catalan muller, Occitan molhèr, Old French moillier, Italian moglie and Romanian muiere.^[8][1] Houaiss and the DCECH point out that only Portuguese, Spanish and Romanian kept the general sense “woman”; elsewhere the word lives on only as “wife”, and words from fēmina or domina took its place.^[6][9]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[1][10] De Vaan shows from the adjective muliebris that it was once an s-stem, and rejects both the old explanation as a comparative of mollis (“soft”) and Klingenschmitt's comparative of the stem of melior (“better”), “the better one, the chief wife”.^[10] Wiktionary mentions a link with mulgeō (“to milk”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ- (“to milk”), “the milk-giver”, and notes that Isidore already derived the word from mollitiēs (“softness”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's earliest dates are 972 and, for the form molier, 1214;^[2][6] Houaiss's first date is 1269.^[2][6] A charter of 1282 has todo õme nĩ muller “every man or woman”.^[2] In the cantigas the word, spelt molher, is common in the pair ome and molher, as in Johan Soairez Somesso's nulh' ome nen molher “no man nor woman”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the first records the word meant both “woman” and “wife”, the two senses it still has.^[3][6][1] Morais (1813) defines it as the female of the human species and as the wife opposed to the husband, and records mulher de partido for a prostitute.^[11] Many such phrases followed, above all in Brazil, where Aurélio lists a long series of names for a prostitute (mulher da vida, mulher da rua, mulher à-toa); Portugal has mulher de virtude for a witch or sorceress.^[7][12][13] The old Aulete adds the sense “a woman of the common people” as against senhora or dama, an effeminate man, and the name of a popular game.^[14][15]

The word passed into Kabuverdianu as mudjér, into Saramaccan as mujɛ́ɛ and into Indonesian as moler.^[1]

Timeline

• 972 – Machado's earliest date for the word.^[2]
• 1214 – molier, the first Portuguese record Machado gives.^[2]
• 1269 – Houaiss's first date, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[6]
• 1282 – todo õme nĩ muller in a charter.^[2]
• c. 1350 – molher in the Trasladação de S. Nicolau (14th-century witness).^[16]
• 1450 – mulher in the Livro das tres vertudes (witness after 1450).^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives mulher, ou molher, noting that António Vieira writes mulher.^[4]
• 1813 – Morais records mulher de partido “prostitute”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woman, an adult human being of the female sex: uma mulher alta e morena.^[6][18][1]
2. Women as a whole, as a part of humanity: a luta pelos direitos da mulher.^[7][13]
3. A girl who has reached puberty: a filha já é mulher.^[6][7]
4. A wife; also, informally, a partner or girlfriend: veio com a mulher e os filhos.^[7][13][1]
5. A woman who has the qualities needed for some task or office: mulher de negócios.^[7][1]
6. (derogatory) An effeminate man.^[19][14][1]
7. A popular game of that name.^[13][15]

Word family

• mulheraça
• mulherada
• mulherame
• mulherão
• mulherengo
• mulheril
• mulherinha
• mulherio
• mulherona
• mulherzinha

Related words

• Latin mulier
• Galician muller
• Spanish mujer

Usage notes

Many phrases for a prostitute are built on the word: mulher pública, mulher de má vida, and in Brazil mulher da vida, mulher da rua and mulher à-toa.^[18][20][7] In southern Brazil ser mulher is said of a girl who has begun to menstruate.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. muller
3. ^ a b c d 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. molher
4. ^ 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. mulher
5. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mulher
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mulher
7. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mulher
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5730
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 185
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 327
12. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 976
13. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6363
14. ^ a b 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. mulher
15. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. mulher
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. molher
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mulher
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mulher
19. ^ 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. mulher
20. ^ 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. mulher
21. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. mulher