portento

Forms

portento m (plural portentos)^[1] The first record is spelt portemto.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin portentum (“omen, portent; prodigy, wonder; monster”), the neuter participle of portendō (“to foretell, presage”).^[2][3][1] Nascentes calls it a learned word.^[4] Bluteau (1712–1728) already derived it from the Latin verb.^[5]

The same Latin word is Spanish portento, Catalan portent and Italian portento.^[1][6] The English words portent and portend belong to the same Latin family.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record, spelt portemto, to about 1539, and the spelling portento to about 1764.^[2] In Latin a portentum was an abnormal phenomenon taken as a sign of some great event.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) still explains the word by the Latin portenta: apparitions such as whole armies, armed horsemen and sea battles seen in the clouds, which he puts down to the reflection and refraction of light.^[5] Morais (1789) defines it as something singular, rare, extraordinary and marvellous, and quotes it of a person, era hum portento de valor “he was a marvel of courage”.^[7] The sense “person of extraordinary talent” is in the modern dictionaries.^[2][8][9]

Timeline

• c. 1539 – first record, as portemto.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau explains it by the Latin portenta.^[5]
• c. 1764 – Houaiss's first record of the spelling portento.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais uses it of a person.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A marvel or prodigy: an extraordinary thing or event; a milagre, a maravilha.^[2][9][1]
2. A rare, singular thing.^[9][10]
3. A person of exceptional intelligence or talent; a genius.^[2][8][1]

Related words

• portentoso
• Latin portentum
• Spanish portento
• English portent

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. portento
3. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. portento
5. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. portento
6. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. portento
7. ^ 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, 221
8. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. portento
9. ^ 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. portento
10. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7360