pagão

Forms

pagão (feminine pagã, masculine plural pagãos, feminine plural pagãs)^[1] The medieval feminine is pagãa;^[2][3][4] Houaiss records pagaãos in the 14th century and the learned pagano before 1664.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pāgānus (“villager; civilian; pagan”), written Old Galician-Portuguese pagão in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] The Latin adjective is formed on pāgus (“country district”) with the suffix -ānus.^[5][1] Nascentes explains the religious sense by the old polytheism holding out longest in the villages, so that the word for a villager came to mean a non-Christian.^[6][7] The country district is related to pangō (“to fix, fasten”) and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to fasten, fix”).^[8][1]

The same Latin word is Galician pagán, Spanish pagano, Catalan pagà, French païen, Italian pagano and Romanian păgân.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin documents have paganos “pagans” in 1124 and 1154.^[3] In Galician-Portuguese the Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of oste de pagãos “a host of pagans” and aquel soldan pagão “that pagan sultan”, and set judeus e pagãos side by side.^[3] The Miragres de Santiago use the noun and the feminine adjective pagãa for the Muslims (a gente pagãa).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word first meant “villager” and “civilian, not a soldier”, and in Christian Latin “pagan”.^[2][10] In medieval Portuguese a pagão was above all a Muslim, the enemy of the Christian kingdoms.^[3] Barbosa (1611) renders it by Latin gentilis, infidelis and ethnicus, and Morais (1813) by “idolater, gentile”.^[11][12] The older Aulete still lists the popular use for Muslims, seen from the Christian side, and for heretics, seen from the Catholic side.^[13] Today the word means one who is not baptised, or a follower of a polytheistic religion; in southern Brazil it is said especially of a newborn not yet baptised.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 1124 – paganos in a Latin charter.^[3]
• 13th century – pagãos and soldan pagão in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• 14th century – the spelling pagaãos, and the feminine pagãa.^[2][4]
• 14th century – the derivative paganismo.^[4]
• 1611 – Barbosa renders it by Latin gentilis and infidelis.^[11]
• before 1664 – the learned form pagano.^[2]
• 17th century – the verb paganizar.^[4]
• 1813 – Morais defines it as “idolater, gentile”.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not baptised: uma criança ainda pagã.^[2][15]
2. Following a religion that does not practise baptism, or a polytheistic one.^[2][15][1]
3. Of or relating to paganism: templos pagãos.^[15][16]
4. (Brazil, regional) Of a horse: not yet broken in.^[17]

Noun

1. A person who has not been baptised.^[2][15]
2. A pagan, heathen: a follower of a polytheistic religion or of a religion without baptism;^[2][16][1] (pejorative) a non-Christian.^[2][16][1]
3. A neopagan.^[1]

Word family

• paganismo
• paganizar
• neopagão

Related words

• paganálias
• Latin pāgānus
• Galician pagán
• Spanish pagano

Usage notes

The proverb quem tem padrinho não morre pagão “who has a godfather does not die unbaptised” means that someone with a protector will always find help; a camisa de pagão is a short shirt for a newborn.^[13]

Houaiss and Aurélio also record a separate Brazilian slang noun pagão “the one who pays”, from pagar, dated about 1950.^[2][15]

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 l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pagão
3. ^ 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. pagão
4. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pagão
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pāgānus
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pagão
7. ^ 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. pagano
8. ^ 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. pangō
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6141
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. paganus
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pagão
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 382
13. ^ 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. pagão
14. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. pagão
15. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pagão
16. ^ 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. pagão
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. pagão