portador

Forms

portador m (plural portadores, feminine portadora, feminine plural portadoras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin portātor (“bearer (of letters)”), from portō (“to carry”).^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary and the first Aurélio also allow a formation from Portuguese portar + -dor, but the word is recorded in 1275, earlier than Cunha's first record of portar in the 14th century.^[5][1][2][3]

The Latin word lives on as Romanian purtător, Italian portatore, French porteur, Catalan portador and Spanish portador.^[6][1] The Latin verb is related to porta (“gate”) and portus (“harbour”), and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology quotes a charter from Portel of 1275 that names Pay paez portador desta presente carta, “Pay Paez, bearer of this present letter”, and one of 1279 with portador desta presente procuraçõ, “bearer of this present power of attorney”.^[7] The first sense is thus the bearer of a document.^[7] Houaiss counts the 1275 record as the adjective and dates the noun to 1328.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries define the word as the bearer of a letter: Cardoso and Barbosa translate it with Latin tabellarius and nuntius, and Bluteau writes of the man who takes a letter or a present to someone.^[8][9][10] Morais in 1813 widens it to anyone who carries a message, letter or load, and to the person who presents a bill or a policy.^[11] Vieira repeats both senses with a quotation from the letters of the Cavalleiro de Oliveira.^[12]

The commercial sense gave ao portador “to bearer”, of a cheque or bond that names no payee.^[2][13] Medicine made the word the term for someone who carries a germ or a gene, often without showing the disease, and physics uses it for a charge carrier.^[2][4][13] In Brazil it also means a porter who carries luggage.^[2]

Timeline

• 1275 – portador desta presente carta in a charter from Portel.^[7][2]
• 1328 – Houaiss's first date for the noun.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders it with Latin tabellarius.^[8]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines the bearer of a letter or a present.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais adds the person who presents a bill or a policy.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who carries or brings something; a bearer.^[2][4][14]
2. A messenger who delivers a letter or a parcel on another's behalf: Mando-lhe o livro pelo portador.^[2][4][13]
3. Someone who brings news.^[2]
4. (Brazil) A porter who carries luggage; carregador.^[2][13]
5. (medicine) A person or animal that carries a pathogen or a gene and can pass it on, often without symptoms.^[2][4][13]
6. (physics) A charge carrier, such as an ion or electron.^[2]
7. (law, finance) The holder of a cheque or bond payable to whoever presents it;^[2][4][13] ao portador “to bearer”.^[2][4][13]

Adjective

1. Carrying or bearing something: uma carta portadora de boas notícias.^[2][4][14]

Related words

• portar
• porte
• portátil
• Latin portātor

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 p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. portador
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. portar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. portador
5. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 1142
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ 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. portador
8. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. portador
9. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. portador
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. portador
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 474
12. ^ 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, 855
13. ^ a b c d e f g 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. portador
14. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. portador