obreiro

Forms

obreiro m (plural obreiros, feminine obreira, feminine plural obreiras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin operārius (“labourer; of work”), with the same form in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] It is the popular counterpart of the learned operário, taken from the same Latin word.^[2][1] Nascentes allows that it may instead have been formed in Portuguese, from Portuguese obra + -eiro, an analysis Wiktionary also notes.^[4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician obreiro, Spanish obrero, Catalan obrer, French ouvrier and Italian operaio.^[5][1]

The Latin adjective is formed from opera (“work, effort”) with the suffix -ārius.^[6][1] De Vaan derives the noun from opus (“work”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep-os (“work”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of triinta obreiros “thirty workmen” digging, and use the word figuratively when they say that companions deven seer obreiros, / loand' a virgen santa “should be workers, praising the holy Virgin”.^[8] Another cantiga has a man who comprou fouces, terra e obreiros “bought sickles, land and labourers”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines the obreiro as a craftsman who works for his living and records obreiro evangélico “labourer of the Gospel”, a missionary.^[10] Morais (1813) has “a worker on building works”, quoting the Ordenações Afonsinas.^[11] Vieira (1871–1874) adds o grande obreiro for God and the figurative sense of anyone who brings about a result.^[12]

The DLP now marks the sense “manual worker” as disused, the usual word being operário, while the figurative sense, someone who works for an idea or a cause, remains current.^[13][14] As an adjective it names the worker caste of social insects such as bees and ants.^[2][15] In Galician obreiro is also the master of works and the cleric in charge of building in a church, a sense Medieval Latin operarius already had.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 1258 – Machado's first date, for the form Obreira, as cited in Lorenzo's chronology.^[8]
• 13th century, second half – obreiros in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[8][3]
• 14th century – the spelling obreyro.^[2]
• c. 1431 – obreiro in the Vida do honrado Infante Josafat (witness 1431–1446).^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Obreiro as Latin operarius.^[19]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records obreiro evangélico.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais defines it as a worker on building works.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A worker, a manual or mechanical labourer; now less usual than operário.^{[2][13][20][1]}
2. (figurative) Someone who works for an idea, a cause or an institution; the author or agent of something.^[13][14][20]
3. One who makes or does something; a maker.^[2][21]

Adjective

1. Working, labouring.^[14][15][1]
2. (zoology) Belonging to the worker caste of social insects such as bees and ants.^[2][15]

Related words

• operário
• obra
• obrar
• Latin operārius
• Galician obreiro
• Spanish obrero

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. obreiro
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. obra
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. obreiro
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. operarius
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. operārius
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. opus
8. ^ a b c 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. obreiro
9. ^ 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. obreiro
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. obreiro
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 355
12. ^ 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, 506
13. ^ 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. obreiro
14. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. obreiro
15. ^ 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. obreiro
16. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. obreiro
17. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. operarius
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. obreiro
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. obreiro
20. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6603
21. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. obreiro