prado

Forms

prado m (plural prados)^[1] Beside prado, the old texts have padros (14th century) and pardos (15th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prātum (“meadow”), written Old Galician-Portuguese prado in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician prado, Spanish prado, Catalan prat, French pré, Italian prato and Romanian prat.^[5][1] A French derivative of it is French prairie, and Wiktionary compares English prairie.^[6][1]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear: a link with Old Irish ráith (“earthen rampart”) fits neither the form nor the sense well; de Vaan finds Steinbauer's Proto-Indo-European *prh₃-tó- (“what has been allotted”) more attractive.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters of the Portugaliae Monumenta Historica already have the Romance form: de prado aluar in 959 and pradis pascuis in 1025.^[3][2] In Galician-Portuguese the Cantigas de Santa Maria describe a square with “a very green meadow, where the people of the land would go for their pleasure” (un prado mui verd'assaz, / en que as gentes da terra yan tẽer seu solaz).^[3] The Crónica Troiana speaks of the season “when the meadows grow green”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defines the word as unploughed ground where grass is left to grow for the cattle, and quotes proverbs such as Prado faz cavallo, & naõ monte largo.^[9] Morais (1813) has much the same definition.^[10]

The old Caldas Aulete distinguishes the prado artificial, sown with fodder plants for a few years, from the prado natural, and gives the Brazilian sense “racecourse”.^[11] In Rio Grande do Sul the word is also the name of an old country dance.^[12] Corominas notes the same dance name in Spanish America, where the word is otherwise old-fashioned.^[13]

Timeline

• 959 – a Latin charter writes de prado aluar.^[3][2]
• 1025 – pradis pascuis in another Latin charter.^[3]
• 13th century – prado in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][4]
• 14th century – the form padros.^[2]
• 15th century – the form pardos.^[2]
• c. 1430 – prado in the Horto do Esposo.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses prado with Latin pratum.^[15]
• 1712 – Bluteau collects proverbs on the meadow.^[9]
• 1813 – Morais defines the word as an uncultivated grass field, usually for pasture.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A meadow, land covered with grasses and herbs used for grazing or fodder; campina.^[2][16][1]
2. (agriculture) A field sown with fodder plants such as clover, kept for some years (prado artificial), or one where the grass renews itself (prado natural).^[17][18]
3. (Brazil) A racecourse; hipódromo.^[2][16][12]
4. (Rio Grande do Sul) An old country dance danced in pairs.^[12]

Related words

• pratícola
• praticultura
• Latin prātum
• Spanish prado

Usage notes

Prado is also a Portuguese surname of geographical origin and the name of a municipality in Bahia.^[19][1]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. prado
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. prado
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. prado
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6732
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pré
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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pratum
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. prado
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 482
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. prado
12. ^ a b c Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. prado
13. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 630
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. prado
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. prado
16. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. prado
17. ^ 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. prado
18. ^ 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. prado
19. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. 285