pássaro

Forms

pássaro m (plural pássaros, feminine pássara, feminine plural pássaras)^[1] Houaiss records passaro and pasaro in the 14th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *passarus, written Old Galician-Portuguese passaro in the oldest texts, from passer (“sparrow, small bird”).^[2][3][1][4] The Latin noun moved from the third declension to the second.^[2][5] Popular Latin already had the form passar: the Appendix Probi corrects it to the classical form.^[5][6] Nascentes explains the change of ⟨e⟩ to ⟨a⟩ by assimilation or by the neighbouring ⟨r⟩.^[7]

The same Latin word is Spanish pájaro, Galician páxaro, Italian passero, Romanian pasăre and Old French passer, whence French passereau.^[8][1][9] The English word passerine comes from the same Latin word.^[1]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain.^[10][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *p(e)t-tro- (“who flies, bird”), after Schrijver, who also derives pārus (“tit”) from the same paradigm.^[11] Wiktionary also mentions a link with *spḗr (“sparrow”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's earliest record is a personal name of 1258; the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the same century have the derivatives passarya “birds, flock of birds” and passarinna “little bird”: oyu hũa passarinna cantar “he heard a little bird sing”.^[12][3] Houaiss's first date for pássaro itself is the 14th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Latin passer was the sparrow, and in late Latin it was already used for any bird.^[10][1] Nascentes notes that Portuguese generalised the sense, making the sparrow the type of the bird.^[7] Vieira (1871–1874) gives it as the general name for every kind of bird, though more especially the small ones, and Morais (1813) as “the male of birds”.^[13][14]

Zoology later narrowed the word to the order of the Passeriformes; in everyday speech it remains a small bird, and Wiktionary notes that its use for any bird is colloquial and sometimes frowned upon.^[2][1] Figuratively it is a shrewd, crafty man, also pássaro-bisnau.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 1258 – Pássaro as a personal name, the earliest record in Lorenzo's chronology.^[12]
• 13th century – passarya and passarinna in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[12][3]
• 14th century – passaro and pasaro.^[2]
• 1813 – Morais defines the word as the male of birds.^[14]
• 1899 – first record of passarada “flock of birds”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small bird; passarinho.^[2][16]
2. (zoology) Any bird of the order Passeriformes, a passerine.^[2][1][17]
3. (informal) Any bird.^[2][1]
4. (figurative) A shrewd, crafty man; pássaro-bisnau.^[2][16][18]

Word family

• passarinho
• passarada
• passaredo
• passarinhar
• passarinheiro
• passaroco
• pássaro-preto

Related words

• passarinhada
• passarinhagem
• passaritar
• passeriforme
• Latin passer
• Galician páxaro
• Spanish pájaro

Usage notes

The proverb mais vale um pássaro na mão que dois a voar “a bird in the hand is worth two flying” warns against giving up what is sure for what is doubtful.^[18] In north-eastern Brazil não ser pássaro que voe em bando “not to be a bird that flies in a flock” is said of someone with a character of their own.^[16][4]

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 h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pássaro
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pássaro
4. ^ 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. pássaro
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 383
6. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. pájaro
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pássaro
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. passer
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. passereau
10. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. passer
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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. passaro
13. ^ 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, 695
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 408
15. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. pássaro
16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pássaro
17. ^ 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. pássaro
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pássaro