porcaria

Forms

porcaria f (plural porcarias)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese porco + -aria, literally “piggishness”.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} porco itself is from Latin porcus (“pig”).^[6]

Spanish and Catalan formed the same word, Spanish porquería and Catalan porqueria, and there are also Italian porcheria and Romanian porcărie.^[1] Wiktionary calls it a piecewise doublet of porqueira, which has the inherited form of the same suffix.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to a text of 1741–1783, and Cunha to the 18th century.^[2][7] Folqman's Portuguese–Latin dictionary of 1755 translates it by Latin spurcitia and sordes “filth”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) gives two senses, filth and a badly made thing.^[9] Silva Bastos (1912) adds obscenity as a figurative sense and marks “badly done work” as popular.^[10] Caldas Aulete's first edition already has dizer porcarias “to use obscene words”.^[11]

Modern informal Portuguese uses it for anything worthless, for unwholesome snacks and for a paltry sum, and Brazil also uses it as an adjective, “lousy”.^[2][12] Aurélio and Houaiss also record the older collective sense, “a herd of pigs”.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1741–1783 – Houaiss's first record.^[2]
• 1755 – Folqman's dictionary lists porcaria.^[8]
• 1789 – Morais gives “filth” and “a badly made thing”.^[9]
• 1796 – first record in the private letters of Post Scriptum.^[13]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the figurative sense “obscenity”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. dirt, filth; an accumulation of mud or rubbish: Depois da feira ficou muita porcaria no chão.^[2][12]
2. (figurative) An obscene word or act, smut.^[2][4]
3. Something disgusting.^[2]
4. (informal) Something bad or of poor quality; botched work: Este arranjo ficou uma porcaria.^[2][5]
5. (informal) junk food, food of no nutritional value.^[2][12]
6. A herd of pigs.^[2][3]
7. (informal, pejorative) A worthless or useless thing, trash.^[2][1]
8. (informal, pejorative) A paltry sum of money.^[2]

Adjective

1. (Brazil, informal, pejorative) Of poor quality, badly made.^[2][12]
2. (Brazil, informal, pejorative) Good for nothing (of a person); also as a noun.^[2]

Related words

• porco
• porqueira
• porcada
• Spanish porquería

Usage notes

Used alone, porcaria! is an exclamation of annoyance at a mishap.^[14]

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 o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. porcaria
3. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. porcaria
4. ^ 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. porcaria
5. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7347
6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. porco
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. porco
8. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. porcaria
9. ^ 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, 219
10. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. porcaria
11. ^ 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. porcaria
12. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. porcaria
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. porcaria
14. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. porcaria