rapaz

Forms

rapaz m (plural rapazes, feminine rapariga (Portugal) or moça (Brazil), feminine plural raparigas (Portugal) or moças (Brazil), diminutive rapazinho, augmentative rapazão)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rapāx (“grasping, given to robbery”), written Old Galician-Portuguese rapaz and Old Galician-Portuguese rrapaz in the old language.^[2][3][4][1] Cunha, Nascentes and the DDGM explain the sense “servant, lackey” as an allusion to the proverbial greed of servants.^[3][4][5] Nascentes and the DDGM treat the word as semi-learned.^[4][5] Corominas gives the same explanation for Spanish rapaz, which meant “lackey, squire's boy” in the Middle Ages.^[6]

The etymology has been questioned.^[7] Diez proposed the Latin word, but Gonçalves Viana and Meyer-Lübke objected that the /p/ is kept and that the meanings do not match, Nunes doubted it and a Vulgar Latin *rapacius, and some looked to Arabic, as Nascentes reports.^[7] The REW calls the Spanish and Portuguese words for “lad” and “girl” difficult.^[8] Bluteau (1712) had already recorded an Arabic etymology from Duarte Nunes de Leão, and another from the Latin verb for “to seize” or from rapar.^[9]

The Latin adjective is formed from rapiō (“to seize”) with the suffix -āx.^[10][1] The old adjective rabaz continues the same Latin word, and rapace is its learned form.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin law of 1253 already lists the rapax among the servants who receive a cape of coarse cloth.^[2][5] In the 13th-century cantigas the word means a low servant or squire's boy, and is usually an insult: the Cantigas de Santa Maria call a man mui peor que rapaz “much worse than a rapaz”.^[5][11]

Semantic evolution

Through the Middle Ages the word kept the sense “servant, lackey”, with a contemptuous tone; a document of 1337 assigns cloth to the rrapazes who go with the writer, and Duarte Nunes de Leão still knew the sense “servant” in 1606.^[5] The modern sense “boy” is already clear in the Crónica Troiana, which tells of a rrapaz pequeno set there by enchantment.^[5] Barbosa (1611) gives both moço qualquer “any boy” and the soldier's servant, and Morais (1789) defines it as one who is no longer a child.^[12][13]

In Portugal rapaz is now also a male child, and a girl's boyfriend.^[2][14][15] Brazilian senses include a young slave, a servant in the north and, in Ceará, the Devil.^[16][17] In Rio Grande do Sul it names snipes of the genus Gallinago.^[2]

Timeline

• 1253 – rapax “servant” in a Latin law.^[2][5]
• 13th century – rapaz and rrapazes in the cantigas, as “servant” and as an insult.^[2][5]
• 1337 – rrapazes “servants” in a document.^[5]
• 1606 – Duarte Nunes de Leão knows the sense “servant, lackey”.^[5]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives rapaz “boy” and rapaz de soldado.^[12]
• 1712 – Bluteau reports an Arabic etymology and the proverb cuyda bem no que fazes, naõ te fies em rapazes.^[9]
• 1836 – first record of rapazote.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A boy in adolescence; a youth, a lad.^[2][16][1]
2. A young adult man; moço, mancebo.^[2][16]
3. (Portugal) A male child; menino.^[2][16][14]
4. (Portugal) A boyfriend.^[14][15]
5. (archaic) A page, a servant of a squire.^[2][5]
6. (Brazil, dated) A young slave.^[16]
7. (northern Brazil) A servant.^[16][18]
8. (Ceará, popular) The Devil.^[16][17]
9. (ornithology, Rio Grande do Sul) A snipe of the genus Gallinago; narcejão, narceja.^[2]

Adjective

1. (rare) Given to robbery; rapace.^[2][16][14]

Interjection

1. (Brazil) Expressing surprise, awe or concern: man!, wow!^[1]

Word family

• rapaziada
• rapazola
• rapazote
• rapazinho
• rapagão
• rapariga

Related words

• rapace
• rabaz
• rapacidade
• Latin rapax
• Spanish rapaz

Usage notes

The feminine counterpart is rapariga in Portugal and moça in Brazil.^[1] Bluteau records the proverb cuyda bem no que fazes, naõ te fies em rapazes “mind what you do, don't trust boys”.^[9]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. rapaz
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. rapaz
4. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. rapaz
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. rapaz
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rapaz
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. rapaz
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7048
9. ^ 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. rapaz
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. rapax
11. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. rapaz
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rapaz
13. ^ 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, 284
14. ^ 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. rapaz
15. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. rapaz
16. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. rapaz
17. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. rapaz
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. rapaz