podre

Forms

podre m or f (plural podres, comparable, comparative mais podre, superlative o mais podre or podríssimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin putris (“rotten, decaying”), written Old Galician-Portuguese podre in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Houaiss dates it to the 13th century, Cunha to the 14th.^[2][3] The same Latin word is Galician podre and Asturian podre, Sardinian pudre, and Spanish podre, which means “pus”.^[5][6]

The Latin adjective belongs with pūs (“pus”) and pūteō (“to rot, stink”); de Vaan reconstructs *puH-tro- (“rotten”), from the root *puH-.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a shoe has been kept so well that it has not rotted (que ja podre non foss’).^[8] The Miragres de Santiago speak of the grain of wheat that lies dry and rotten under the earth and yet sprouts.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) applies the word to wheat, vegetables, fruit and meat, and records dentes podres “decayed teeth” and the medical term febre podre, a fever thought to come from corrupted humours.^[9] Morais (1813) has the noun os podres “one's faults and weaknesses” and the figurative ser peixe podre “to be good for nothing”.^[10] Modern dictionaries add “exhausted”, a crumbly dough in cooking, podre de “extremely” (podre de rico) and, in Goiás, dark native gold.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1200s – first record, according to Houaiss, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][8]
• 1200s – first record of the derivative podrido “rotten”.^[3]
• 1300s – first record of the derivative apodrecer.^[3]
• c. 1430 – podre in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[12]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders podre by Latin putris.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records febre podre.^[9]
• 1813 – Morais records os podres and ser peixe podre.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. rotten, decaying, spoilt: Deitou fora as laranjas podres.^[2][14][1]
2. Foul-smelling, fetid.^[2][11]
3. (figurative) Corrupt, depraved.^[2][15]
4. (figurative, informal) Worn out, exhausted.^[2][11]
5. (cooking) Of a dough: crumbly, without elasticity.^[2][16]
6. (Brazil, informal) Very bad, awful.^[1]

Noun

1. The rotten part of something.^[2][14]
2. (figurative) The weak or blameworthy side of someone or something.^[2][16] (in the plural) faults, vices, blemishes.^[2][16]
3. (Brazil, informal, usually plural) Compromising information about someone, dirt.^[1]
4. (Brazil, Goiás) Native gold of a dark colour.^[2][11]

Word family

• apodrecer
• podridão
• podrido
• podrimento

Related words

• pútrido
• putrefazer
• Latin putris
• Spanish podre

Usage notes

Podre de before an adjective means “extremely”, almost always in podre de rico “filthy rich”.^[2][15] Paz podre is a false or uneasy peace.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. podre
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. podre
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. podre
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. putris
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. puter
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. podre
9. ^ 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. podre
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 462
11. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. podre
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. podre
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. podre
14. ^ a b 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. podre
15. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7283
16. ^ a b c 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. podre