pomposo

Forms

pomposo (feminine pomposa, masculine plural pomposos, feminine plural pomposas, metaphonic)^[1] Houaiss records the 15th-century spelling pomposso.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin pompōsus (“stately, magnificent”), according to Cunha, the DLP and Wiktionary.^[3][4][1] Houaiss instead treats it as a Portuguese formation from pompa with the suffix -oso.^[2] The Late Latin adjective is formed from the same noun in Latin, “procession, pomp”, and the suffix -ōsus, and is used from late antiquity of a stately gait and of a grand style.^[1][5][6] The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek πομπή (pompḗ, “a sending, a solemn procession”), from πέμπω (pémpō, “to send”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology finds it in the Crónica de 1344, in fosem vestidos de pomposas vestiduras “that they should be dressed in splendid garments”, and in another early text with mostra contenença pomposa “shows a stately bearing”.^[7] Houaiss and Cunha date it to the 14th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is “splendid, magnificent”, of clothes, ceremonies and processions;^[2][7][8] Morais defines it as “done with pomp, accompanied by many people”.^[2][7][8] Of words and style it means “grandiloquent”: Cardoso in 1569 renders it with Latin turgidus, and Bluteau has estylo pomposo.^[9][10] The modern dictionaries add the sense “stiffly formal, self-important”.^[4] Houaiss also records the sense “luxuriant, exuberant”, which Morais illustrates with the pomposa frescura do bosque of Camões.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1344 – pomposas vestiduras in the Crónica de 1344.^[7]
• 1491 – in the Vida de Santo Elói, in a witness of that year.^[12]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses Pomposo as Latin turgidus.^[9]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives esplendido, magnifico and estylo pomposo.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as “in which there is pomp”.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. magnificent, sumptuous, done or shown with pomp (pompa).^[2][13][14]
2. Of style or speech: grandiloquent, inflated.^[2][13][15]
3. Of a person: stiffly formal, wanting to seem more important than he is; pompous.^[4][1]
4. Luxuriant, exuberant.^[2]

Related words

• pompa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pomposo
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pomposo
4. ^ a b c 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. pomposo
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. pompōsus
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. pomposus
7. ^ a b c d 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. pomposo
8. ^ 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, 215
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pomposo
10. ^ 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. pomposo
11. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 466
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. pomposo
13. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pomposo
14. ^ 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. pomposo
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7329