pobre

Forms

pobre m or f (plural pobres, comparable, comparative mais pobre, superlative o mais pobre or pobríssimo or paupérrimo)^[1] The medieval texts have pobre, probe, proue (prove) and poble.^[2][3][4] The metathesised probe is still heard in the dialects, for example in the Minho.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pauper (“poor”), written Old Galician-Portuguese pobre and Old Galician-Portuguese probe in the 13th-century texts.^[2][3][1] Like Spanish, Portuguese continues the classical form with one ending for both genders, while the other Romance languages go back to a later form with a separate feminine.^[5][6]

The same Latin word is Galician pobre, Spanish pobre, Catalan pobre, Occitan paubre, French pauvre and Italian povero.^[6][1]

The Latin /au/ would normally give Portuguese ⟨ou⟩, so the word has been much discussed.^[5] Nunes and Menéndez Pidal assumed a Vulgar Latin form with /o/.^[7] Nascentes's shorter dictionary instead derives it from a Vulgar Latin form with /ou/ through the old Old Galician-Portuguese prove, refashioned on the Latin word.^[8] Corominas rejects that base: he takes the word as a reduction of Old Galician-Portuguese poubre, with the /w/ absorbed by the two labial consonants, as in bobo from Latin balbus.^[5] Houaiss suggests that the open /ɔ/ of the stressed vowel, which came from the Latin diphthong, is due to the influence of the following short /e/.^[2]

De Vaan derives the Latin word from a compound meaning “providing little”, whose first part is the root Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, small”) of paucus (“few”) and parvus (“small”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda a man is pobre de coraçon “poor of heart”, that is, fainthearted.^[4][10] Pedr' Amigo de Sevilha writes poys ficastes probe sẽ auer “since you were left poor, without property”, and Afonso X writes de uiuer pobre “of living poor”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the first records the word meant “lacking money or goods”, and the noun a poor person or a beggar.^[2][4] Placed before the noun it expresses pity, pobre homem “poor man”, as already in Morais (o pobre do Zagalejo).^[11][2] It also means poorly endowed (pobre de imaginação), unproductive (terra pobre), and of a language, short of words.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 13th century – pobre and probe in the cantigas of Afonso X and Pedr' Amigo de Sevilha.^[4][2]
• 13th century – the derivative pobreza is recorded.^[3]
• 14th century – proue in the Crónica Troiana;^[4] pobles in a document of 1326.^[4]
• 1416 – first occurrence in the CTA corpus, in the Vida de Santo Aleixo.^[12]
• 1538 – prove in a private letter.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Pobre with Latin pauper.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais gives the senses “not rich”, “unhappy” and, as a noun, “one who begs from door to door”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. poor, lacking money or the necessities of life.^[2][15][1]
2. Showing poverty: um quarto pobre.^[2][15]
3. Poorly endowed; lacking a quality: pobre de ideias.^[2][15]
4. Unproductive, barren: solo pobre.^[2][15]
5. (before the noun) Pitiable, wretched: o pobre rapaz.^[2][15]

Noun

1. A poor person.^[2][15][1]
2. A beggar.^[2][15]

Word family

• pobreza
• pobretão
• empobrecer
• empobrecimento

Related words

• paupérrimo
• pauperismo
• depauperar
• Latin pauper
• Spanish pobre

Usage notes

The superlative is pobríssimo or the learned paupérrimo.^[1] Bluteau quotes the saying Nunca he pobre, quem tem bons amigos, & sabe algũa arte “he is never poor who has good friends and knows a craft”.^[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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pobre
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pobre
4. ^ 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. pobre
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 584
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6305
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 405
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pobre
9. ^ 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. pauper
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. pobre
11. ^ a b c 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, 210
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. pobre
13. ^ 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. pobre
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pobre
15. ^ 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. pobre
16. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pobre