pai

Forms

pai m (plural pais)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote pai and pay, and the 15th century paay and pae.^[2][3] Bluteau in 1712 still gives pay and pae beside pai.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pater (“father”), written Old Galician-Portuguese pay in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Houaiss and Cunha explain it as a reduction of the regular outcome Old Galician-Portuguese padre to *pade and pae, probably under the influence of children's speech, which also shows in the reduplicated papá of Portugal and papai of Brazil.^[2][3][5] Meyer-Lübke calls the Portuguese form a pet name.^[6] Nascentes reports other views: Diez saw the loss of a final -r, and Cornu compared the change with that of Pedro to Pero.^[7] Wiktionary compares the similar reduction of mãe from Latin māter.^[1] The full form padre survives as a doublet, but lost the sense “father” in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[7][1]

The same Latin word is Galician pai, Mirandese pai, Spanish padre, Catalan pare, Occitan paire, French père and Italian padre.^[6][1] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr (“father”).^[8][1] De Vaan reports that its root is disputed: it may be a derivative of a root “to protect”, or a formation with an agent suffix from a nursery word.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded from the 13th century.^[2][3] In a cantiga of Johan Soairez Somesso it is already one syllable, rhyming with vai, and a satirical cantiga of the same poet says of Dona Orraca Abril per como a quer casar seu pai “the way her father wants to marry her off”.^[9] The sense is “father”, the man who begot a child.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau in 1712 enters pai, pay and pae, and gives the theological sense of God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, beside Adam as “our first father” and the title once given to the pagan gods.^[4] Figurative senses followed: the founder or creator of something, a benefactor or protector, and in the plural the parents or the ancestors.^{[2][10][11][1]} In Brazil the word was also used for a native chief.^[12][13] Compounds include pai de santo, a priest of the Afro-Brazilian religions, and pai natal, Father Christmas.^[1]

The word passed into the Portuguese-based creoles (Kabuverdianu, Guinea-Bissau Creole and Kristang pai, Sãotomense pe), into Ambonese Malay and into Old Tupi as paîa.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – pai and pay in the cantigas.^[2][3][9]
• 1504 – the spelling pay in a private letter.^[14]
• 1712 – Bluteau enters pai, ou pay, ou pae.^[4]
• 1755 – Folqman heads the word pay.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. father: a man who has begotten or raised a child.^[2][10][1]
2. A male animal with offspring; a sire.^[10][12]
3. (religion, capitalised) God the Father, the first person of the Trinity.^[2][11]
4. (figurative) The founder or creator of something; the cause or author of an idea.^[2][1]
5. (Brazil) A native chief, a cacique.^[12][13]
6. (figurative) A benefactor or protector.^[12][11]
7. (in the plural) The parents, father and mother; the ancestors.^[11][1]

Word family

• paizinho
• paizão
• pai de santo
• pai natal

Related words

• padrão
• padre
• padroeiro
• patrão
• pátria
• patrono
• papai
• papá
• padrinho
• paterno
• paternidade
• mãe
• Latin pater
• Galician pai

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. pai
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pai
4. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pai
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pai
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6289
7. ^ 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. s.v. pai
8. ^ 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, p. s.v. pater
9. ^ 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. pai
10. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pai
11. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6814
12. ^ a b c d 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. pai
13. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. pai
14. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. pai
15. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pai