nobre

Forms

nobre m or f (plural nobres)^[1] The 13th and 14th centuries have both nobre and noble.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nōbilis (“known; famous; of high birth”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nobre and Old Galician-Portuguese noble in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes derives it from the oblique form of the Latin adjective, through an intermediate form with ⟨bl⟩, the one also found in the old texts.^[5]

The same Latin word is Spanish noble, Catalan noble, French noble, Italian nobile and Romanian nobil.^[1][6] Corominas dates the Spanish word to 1184 and treats it as taken from Latin.^[7]

The Latin adjective, archaic gnōbilis, is formed with -bilis on nōscō (“to get to know, recognise”), so that it first meant “well known”.^[2][8][1] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology finds the word in the 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria, which call a city rica e mui nobre “rich and very noble”.^[4] The same collection has nobre baron “noble lord” and nobre manjar “fine food”, so both “of high rank” and “excellent” are there from the start.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Geral uses nobre of kings, knights, a horse and a city.^[4] Bluteau defines the noble as someone distinguished from commoners by blood or by royal grant, and records the medical partes nobres, the organs without which the body cannot live.^[9] Morais adds the sense of excellence in its kind, the lion among animals, the cedar among trees, and the noble action worthy of a gentleman.^[10] Modern usage adds technical senses: wood of high quality, a chemically unreactive gas (gás nobre), the floor of a house above the shop, a wealthy district; the form of address o nobre deputado is used in parliaments.^{[11][12][13][1]}

Timeline

• 13th century – nobre in the Cantigas de Santa Maria;^[4][14] nobreza and nobleza in the same century.^[4][14]
• 14th century – ennobreçer.^[3]
• 1416 – the Vida de Santo Aleixo uses nobre.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso gives nobre with the Latin nobilis.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records partes nobres of the body.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais adds the sense “excellent of its kind”.^[10]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives the Latin word from gnobilis, “worthy of being known”.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a title of nobility (nobreza); belonging to the nobility; aristocratic.^[2][18][1]
2. Descended from nobles; of illustrious birth.^[2][11]
3. Relating to or typical of nobles: uma casa nobre.^[2][12]
4. Deserving respect; distinguished, illustrious; used as a courtesy title for members of parliament and colleagues.^[2][11]
5. Majestic, stately, magnificent.^[2][18]
6. High-minded, magnanimous, generous: um gesto nobre.^[2][11]
7. Of the best quality, prized in its kind: madeira nobre.^[12][18][1]
8. (chemistry) Little reactive: gás nobre.^[11]
9. (of a district or building) Upper-class, wealthy.^[1]

Noun

1. A member of the nobility; a nobleman or noblewoman.^[2][18][1]

Word family

• nobreza
• enobrecer

Related words

• nobilitar
• nobiliárquico
• Latin nōbilis
• Spanish noble

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. nobre
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. nobre
4. ^ 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. nobre
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. nobre
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 355
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. noble
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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. nobre
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, 116
11. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. nobre
12. ^ 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. nobre
13. ^ 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. nobre
14. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. nobreza
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. nobre
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. nobre
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, 438
18. ^ a b c d 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. nobre