puro

Forms

puro (feminine pura, masculine plural puros, feminine plural puras, comparable, comparative mais puro, superlative o mais puro or puríssimo, diminutive purinho)^[1] A private letter of 1570 spells it poro, and Houaiss records pouro before 1798.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pūrus (“clean, pure, unmixed”), written Old Galician-Portuguese puro in the oldest texts.^[3][4][1][5]

The same Latin word is Galician puro, Spanish puro, Catalan pur, French pur and Italian puro.^[6][1]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *pūro-; de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *ph₂ú-ro- (“clear, cleansed”) and compares Old Irish úr (“green, fresh”).^[7] Wiktionary sets it under the root *pewH- (“to cleanse, purify”), also the source of putus and pius.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology finds it in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, three centuries before Machado's first record: da que foi Virgen pura “of her who was a pure virgin”, en carne pura “in pure flesh”, and aquest'é verdade pura “this is the pure truth”.^[8] So the first sense is moral and religious purity, with the intensive “nothing but” beside it.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The medieval charters use it in law: a gift por pura et simplez doaçon (1341) is unconditional, and a deed de pura venda (1370) is an outright sale.^[8] The Crónica Geral of 1344 speaks of a cross d'ouro puro “of pure gold”, the sense “unmixed”.^[8] Bluteau in 1712–1728 explains the theologians' Acto puro for God and the vinho puro that has no water in it.^[9] Morais in 1789 adds ar puro and the phrase de puro, “from sheer”, as in de puro chorar “from sheer weeping”.^[10]

The modern dictionaries add the purity of language and style, a bull that has not yet been fought, and an animal of pure breed.^[3][11][12] Brazilian slang uses it for “sober”.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – Virgen pura in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[8]
• 1341 – por pura et simplez doaçon in a charter.^[8]
• 1344 – d'ouro puro in the Crónica Geral.^[8]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo uses the word.^[13]
• 1570 – a private letter spells it poro.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau explains Acto puro and vinho puro.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records ar puro and de puro sentimento.^[10]
• before 1798 – the variant pouro.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unmixed, free of foreign elements: um casaco de lã pura.^[3][14][1]
2. Uncontaminated, clean; clear, limpid (water, air, sky).^[3][14]
3. Spotless, immaculate.^[3][15]
4. Morally pure: innocent, chaste, virtuous; honest.^[3][14][1]
5. Genuine, unquestionable; sincere.^[3][15]
6. Of language or style, correct, vernacular.^[3][11]
7. Mere, nothing but; complete, utter: foi pura sorte.^[3][16]
8. Of an animal, not crossbred.^[11]
9. (bullfighting) Of a bull, not yet fought.^[3][12]
10. (Brazil, slang) sober.^[1]

Word family

• puramente
• pureza
• apurar
• apuro
• apuração
• apurador

Related words

• impuro
• puridade
• purificar
• Latin pūrus
• Spanish puro

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include em pura perda “to no purpose at all” and à pura força “by main force”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. puro
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. puro
4. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. puro
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. puro
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6864
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. ^ 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. puro
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. puro
10. ^ 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, 266
11. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7609
12. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. puro
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. puro
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. puro
15. ^ 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. puro
16. ^ 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. puro