progenitor

Forms

progenitor m (plural progenitores, feminine progenitora, feminine plural progenitoras)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin prōgenitor (“ancestor, founder of a family”), used in Latin also of a grandfather.^[2][3][1] Nascentes calls it a learned word, which took the sense “father” in Portuguese.^[4] The Latin noun is formed from prōgignō (“to beget, produce as offspring”) with the agent suffix -tor, and the verb from prō- and gignō (“to beget”).^[5][6][1] French has the same Latin word as French progéniteur.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology has the word in 1460, in the plural, of the kings who were the writer's ancestors: dos Rex nosso auoo e padre progenitores nossos “of the kings, our grandfather and father, our forebears”.^[7][2] Cunha dates it to the 15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as grandfather, great-grandfather, forebear or “first father”, and quotes Duarte Ribeiro on Count Henry as glorioso Progenitor de nossos Reys “glorious forefather of our kings”.^[8] Morais keeps the sense of ancestor and grandfather.^[9][10] The original Caldas Aulete gives both “one who begets before the father” and simply “father”, and in the plural “grandparents, ancestors, parents”.^[11] Today Houaiss puts “ancestor” first and “father, genitor” second, the DLP has “father or mother”, and the plural is used of a person's biological parents.^[2][12] A figurative sense, the originator or founder of something, is in Porto Editora and Wiktionary.^[13][1]

Timeline

• 1460 – progenitores nossos of the writer's royal grandfather and father.^[7]
• 1692 – a private letter spells it projinitores.^[14]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro glosses it with the Latin progenitor.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as grandfather and forebear.^[8]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as ascendant, grandparent.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person from whom someone descends; an ancestor, forebear, antepassado.^[2][16][1]
2. One who begets; a father, genitor.^[2][12][13]
3. (in the plural) The line of earlier generations; ascendência.^[2]
4. (in the plural) A person's biological parents, father and mother.^[2][12]
5. (figurative) The originator or founder of something.^[13][12][1]

Related words

• progénie
• progenitura
• genitor
• Latin prōgenitor

Usage notes

Several dictionaries still give as the first sense “one who begets before the father”, that is, a grandfather or other ascendant, the Latin sense.^[17][13][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. progenitor
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. progênie
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. progenitor
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. prōgenitor
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. prōgignō
7. ^ a b 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. progenitor
8. ^ 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. progenitor
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, 250
10. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 511
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. progenitor
12. ^ a b c d 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. progenitor
13. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7504
14. ^ 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. progenitor
15. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. progenitor
16. ^ a b 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. progenitor
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. progenitor