peido

Forms

peido m (plural peidos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pēditum (“fart”), written Old Galician-Portuguese peido in the medieval texts.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician peido, Spanish pedo, Catalan pet, French pet and Italian peto.^[4][5] The DHLF explains the French form through intermediate forms with -dt- and -tt-.^[6]

The Latin word is the noun from pēdō (“to fart”).^[7][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *pezd-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *pesd- (“to fart”), with cognates in Ancient Greek βδέω (bdéō), Lithuanian bezdėti and Russian бздеть (bzdetʹ), and notes that the shape of the root suggests an onomatopoeic formation.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 14th century.^[2][3] It occurs in the satirical cantigas: one by Fernan Garcia Esgaravunha mocks a man who, as soon as he felt well covered, “sneezed three farts and got well” (estornudou tres peidos e guariu).^[9] Another has deu-mi un gran peid’ “he let off a great fart at me”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) renders it with Latin crepitus, and Bluteau (1712–1728) refers it to the politer traque.^[11][12] Morais (1789) defines it as the air let out where the coarse excrements leave the body.^[13] The verb peidar is recorded from 1813.^[3] Modern dictionaries label the noun vulgar or taboo.^[2][14][15]

In the Minho the original Caldas Aulete records peido for a whorl of hair on the forehead or nape, and Portuguese dialect surveys record it for a tuft of hair that will not lie flat.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 1300s – first records, according to Houaiss and Cunha.^[2][3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary gives Latin crepitus.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau refers the word to traque.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais defines it.^[13]
• 1813 – first record of the verb peidar.^[3]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives it from Latin.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. (vulgar) A fart, gas let out through the anus.^{[2][19][14][1]}
2. (Minho, northern Portugal) A cowlick, a tuft of hair that grows the wrong way.^[16][17]

Word family

• peidar

Related words

• Latin pēdō
• Spanish pedo

Usage notes

In Bahia a peido-do-meio is a busybody who meddles in everything.^[20][21] In Rio Grande do Sul peido de anão is said scornfully of an insignificant or very short person.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. peido
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. peido
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6358
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. peditum
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pet
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. peido
10. ^ 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. peido
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. peido
12. ^ 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. peido
13. ^ a b 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, 178
14. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. peido
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7018
16. ^ 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. peido
17. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. peido
18. ^ 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, 725
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. peido
20. ^ 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. peido
21. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. peido
22. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. peido