reino

Forms

reino m (plural reinos)^[1] In the 13th century the word was written reino, reyno and regno; later records have rejnos (1344), rregno (14th century) and reignos (15th century).^[2][3] Houaiss also records an archaic form reame in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rēgnum (“kingship, royal power; kingdom”), written Old Galician-Portuguese reino, Old Galician-Portuguese reyno and Old Galician-Portuguese regno in 13th-century texts.^[2][3][1]

The same Latin word is Galician reino, Spanish reino, Italian regno and Catalan regne; French règne is a learned remaking of an older popular form.^[1][4][5] The Latin noun is formed from rēx (“king”) with an adjective suffix -nus.^[1] De Vaan traces it to Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs (“ruler, king”), the source of Sanskrit राजन् (rā́jan) and Old Irish rí as well.^[6][1]

The regular outcome of Latin -gn- would have given *renho, as Nascentes notes.^[7] He gives two explanations from the literature for the ⟨i⟩: the ⟨g⟩ was resolved into a vowel, as Leite de Vasconcelos and Nunes hold, or the word was influenced by rei, as Meyer-Lübke and Menéndez Pidal hold.^[7] García de Diego also explains the Spanish and Portuguese form, in place of a regular *reno, by the influence of the word for “king”.^[8] The old spelling ⟨regno⟩ is a Latinising one.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of o reyno d'Aragon “the kingdom of Aragon” and of Paradise as o reino celestial “the heavenly kingdom”.^[9] A cantiga d'escarnho of Afons' Eanes do Coton has o reino de Deus “the kingdom of God”.^[9][10] The first records thus have both the political and the religious sense.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defined the word as one or more provinces subject to a king, and Morais added a state that once had its own king and was joined to another sovereign's realm.^[11][12] In the colonial period o Reino meant Portugal itself, seen from Brazil and the other overseas lands, and Morais records reinol for a person who came from the Kingdom to the conquests.^[2][12]

Natural history used the word for the great divisions of nature, reino animal, reino vegetal and reino mineral, and modern biology for the highest taxonomic rank.^[2][13] In the north-east of Brazil reino is also a cheap mixture of parati spirit, and in the catimbó cults one of the divisions of the other world.^[2][14] Silva Bastos records a Timor sense, a group of villages.^[13] The word was borrowed into Tetum as reinu.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, as reino, reyno and regno.^[2][3]
• 1344 – the spelling rejnos.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling reignos and the archaic form reame.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary translates reino as Latin regnum.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as provinces subject to one king.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais records reinol, a person sent out from the Kingdom.^[12]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos gives the natural-history sense and a Timor sense.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kingdom: a country or state ruled by a king or queen; a monarchy (monarquia).^[2][16][1]
2. (historical) o Reino: Portugal, as opposed to colonial Brazil and the other overseas possessions.^[2][16]
3. The subjects of a monarchy as a whole.^[2][16]
4. (figurative) A realm or domain where someone or something rules, or a sphere or field.^[2][16]
5. Each of the great divisions of nature studied by the natural sciences: reino animal, reino vegetal, reino mineral.^[2][17]
6. (biology) The highest taxonomic rank.^[2][1]
7. (religion) reino de Deus, reino dos céus: the kingdom of God, eternal life.^[2]
8. (north-eastern Brazil) A cheap mixture of parati spirit.^[2][14]

Word family

• reinol
• pimenta-do-reino

Related words

• rei
• reinar
• reinado
• régio
• Latin rēgnum
• Galician reino

Usage notes

In Trás-os-Montes reino is also the name of a long beam of a mill.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. reino
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. reino
4. ^ 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. reino
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. règne
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 438
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. regnum
9. ^ a b c 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. reino
10. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. reino
11. ^ 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. reino
12. ^ a b c 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, 314
13. ^ a b c Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. reino
14. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. reino
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. reino
16. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. reino
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. reino
18. ^ 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. reino