parente

Forms

parente m or f by sense or m (plural parentes, feminine parenta, feminine plural parentas)^[1] Medieval forms include parent and paretes (14th century) and paremte (15th century).^[2] The feminine parenta appears in a Latin text of 1188–1230.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin parēns (“father or mother, parent”), written Old Galician-Portuguese parente in the oldest texts.^[2][1][4] In classical Latin the word meant “father or mother”, and the plural “parents, ancestors”; already in Late Latin the plural was used for all relatives, which became the Portuguese sense.^[2][4][5] Saint Jerome remarks that the plural meant kinsmen and in-laws in the speech of soldiers and common people.^[6]

The same Latin word is Galician parente, Spanish pariente, Catalan parent, French parent, Italian parente and Romanian părinte, which in Romanian means “father” and “priest”.^[7][1]

The Latin noun is an old aorist participle of pariō (“to give birth to, bear”).^[8][9] It goes back to Proto-Italic *par-(e)nt-, from the root *perh₃- (“to produce, beget”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology records the word in Latin texts from 1130 (ad suos parentes “to his relatives”), which is the first date in Houaiss.^[3][2] In the vernacular, the Cantigas de Santa Maria already have the modern sense: vi morrer meu padr' e todos meus parentes “I saw my father and all my kin die”.^[3] The Cancioneiro da Ajuda uses parente as an adjective, “related”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “father” survived for a time beside “relative”: Houaiss and Aurélio record it as obsolete.^[2][10] Bluteau (1712) defines the word for every ascendant or descendant of a family, in a direct or a collateral line.^[11] Morais (1789) treats it as an adjective also used as a noun, with a feminine parenta.^[12]

The adjective took the figurative sense “similar, akin”, as of things of the same kind.^[2][13] In Amazonas and Pará parente is a familiar form of address among the caboclos, equivalent to “mate, comrade”.^[2][10] The Portuguese word was borrowed into Hunsrik, the German of southern Brazil, as Parent.^[1]

Timeline

• 1130 – ad suos parentes in a Latin text.^[3]
• 1188–1230 – the feminine parenta in a Latin text.^[3]
• 13th century – todos meus parentes in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• 14th century – the forms parent and paretes.^[2]
• c. 1513 – first record in the CTA corpus, in the Livro dos Mártires.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives parente, ou parenta.^[15]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines the word for all members of a family line.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A relative, a person related to another by blood, by marriage or by adoption: um parente afastado.^[2][10][1]
2. (obsolete) The father (pai).^[2][10]
3. (Brazil, Amazonas and Pará, informal) A form of address, “mate, comrade”.^[2][10]

Adjective

1. related by family ties.^[2][10][1]
2. (figurative) Of the same kind; similar, analogous (análogo): duas ideias parentes.^[2][13]

Word family

• parentela
• parentesco
• parentada
• parentalha
• aparentar
• aparentado

Related words

• parental
• parir
• Latin parēns
• Galician parente
• Spanish pariente

Usage notes

A parente afim or parente por afinidade is a relative by marriage, as opposed to a parente consanguíneo, a blood relative.^[2][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. parente
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. parente
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. parente
5. ^ 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. pariente
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. parens
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6233
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. parens
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. parente
11. ^ 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. parente
12. ^ 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, 160
13. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. parente
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. parente
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. parente
16. ^ 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. parente