piolhoso

Forms

piolhoso (feminine piolhosa, masculine plural piolhosos, feminine plural piolhosas, metaphonic)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese piolho (“louse”) + -oso, as Houaiss, Aurélio, the DLP and Michaelis explain it.^[2][3][4][5] Porto Editora derives it instead from Latin peduculōsus, a variant of pēdīculōsus (“lousy”), and Wiktionary allows either the Portuguese formation or that Latin word, through Vulgar Latin peduclōsus.^[6][1] Lewis and Short record the Latin word only in the glosses of Philoxenus.^[7]

The noun was written Old Galician-Portuguese peolho in the 14th century.^[8][9] It goes back to Late Latin peduculus, a variant of Latin pēdīculus, the diminutive of pēdis (“louse”), which Wiktionary traces to Proto-Indo-European *pezd-.^[9][1]

The same formation is found in Galician piolloso, Spanish piojoso, French pouilleux and Italian pidocchioso.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective is first found in Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary of 1569, which renders piolhoso by the Latin pediculosus, “lousy”.^[10] Houaiss's own first date, 1720 with the spelling piolhôso, is from Bluteau's dictionary.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The old dictionaries give only the literal sense, “having lice”: Folqman (1755) glosses it with the Latin pediculosus of Plautus, Morais (1789) defines it as “that has lice”, and Vieira (1871–1874) explains it as piolho with the suffix -oso.^[11][12][13] Houaiss adds the sense “apt to breed lice” and, by extension, “living in dirt, filthy”, and the DLP also “wretched”.^[2][4] The original Caldas Aulete makes it a synonym of piolhento, quoting Antero de Figueiredo on a woman with a cabeça desgrenhada e piolhosa “a dishevelled, lice-ridden head”.^[14]

In European Portuguese slang it means “of poor quality, shabby”.^[2][3][6] The DLP also uses it as a noun for a lice-ridden or slovenly person, and a Portuguese dialect survey records it as “filthy, slovenly”.^[4][15]

Timeline

• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary has piolhoso, rendered pediculosus.^[10]
• 1720 – Houaiss's first date, spelt piolhôso, from Bluteau's dictionary.^[2]
• 1755 – Folqman glosses it Pediculosus.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as “that has lice”.^[12]
• 1858 – first record of the synonym piolhento.^[8]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives it from piolho with the suffix -oso.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. lousy, infested with lice: Os miúdos voltaram da colónia de férias piolhosos.^[2][4][1]
2. Prone to breed lice.^[2][4]
3. (by extension) filthy, dirty; wretched; piolhento.^[2][4][3]
4. (Portugal, slang) Of poor quality, shabby: um hotel piolhoso.^[2][3][6]

Noun

1. A person who has lice;^[2][1] (derogatory) a dirty, slovenly person.^[4][16][17]

Related words

• piolho
• piolhento
• Latin pēdīculōsus
• Spanish piojoso
• Galician piolloso

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. piolhoso
3. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. piolhoso
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. piolhoso
5. ^ 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. piolhoso
6. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7199
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. peduculosus
8. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. piolho
9. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. piolho
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. piolhoso
11. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. piolhoso
12. ^ 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, 204
13. ^ a b 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, 808
14. ^ 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. piolhoso
15. ^ 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. piolhoso
16. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. piolhoso
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. piolhoso