remédio

Forms

remédio m (plural remédios)^[1] Medieval spellings were remedyo (1390), rremedio (1391), remedeo and, in the 15th century, remediio.^[2] Houaiss dates remédio to the 16th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin remedium (“remedy, cure”), recorded from 1390.^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes counts it among the learned words.^[4]

The same Latin word was taken by Spanish remedio, a learned word first recorded in 1220–1250, by French remède in 1181, and by Catalan remei.^[5][6][7]

The Latin noun is formed on medeor (“to heal, cure”) with re- and the suffix -ium.^[8][1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *medē- and to Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure”), the root of μέδομαι (médomai, “to care for”) and 𐌼𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (mitan, “to measure”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is of 1390, spelt remedyo, from Cunha's medieval slips.^[2] In the Horto do Esposo (witness copied 1390–1437) the word is already frequent.^[10] In Latin, remedium meant first a means of treating an illness, a remedy.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Morais's dictionary (1789) gives the medical sense first, then the figurative “means of stopping an evil or making good a lack”, and the sense “livelihood”, as in gente pobre e sem remédio “poor people with nothing to live on” and homem que tem remédio “a well-off man”.^[11] Vieira (1871–1874) quotes remédio for moral relief in Corte-Real's Naufrágio de Sepúlveda.^[12]

The sense “help, solution” is fixed in phrases such as não ter outro remédio “to have no choice” and the resigned exclamation que remédio!.^[13] In law it means a measure that repairs a wrong or restores an interrupted legal relation.^[2] In Brazil it has a slang sense, “sugar-cane spirit, cachaça”, which Aurélio places in Rio de Janeiro.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 1390 – first record, spelt remedyo; 1391 rremedio.^[2]
• c. 1430 – frequent in the Horto do Esposo.^[10]
• 15th century – first record of the verb remediar.^[3]
• 16th century – the spelling remédio.^[2]
• 1542 – in a private letter, spelt Remedio.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais lists the senses “medicine”, “means of remedying an evil” and “livelihood”.^[11]
• 1813 – first records of remediado and irremediável.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A substance or treatment used against pain or illness; a medicine: O médico receitou um remédio para a tosse.^[2][14][1]
2. Whatever relieves moral suffering or the hardships of life.^[2][16]
3. Whatever removes a trouble or an inconvenience; a remedy, solution: Não havia remédio senão pagar.^[2][14][1]
4. Help, protection, aid.^[2][14]
5. A correction or amendment of a fault.^[2][14]
6. (law) A lawful means of repairing a wrong or achieving a legal end.^[2][14]
7. (Brazil, informal) Sugar-cane spirit; cachaça.^[2][14]

Word family

• remédio-de-vaqueiro

Related words

• remediado
• remediador
• remediar
• remediável
• irremediável
• Latin remedium
• Spanish remedio

Usage notes

The proverb para grandes males, grandes remédios “great ills need great remedies” means that grave circumstances call for extreme measures.^[13] In north-eastern Brazil não ter nem um para remédio means to have none at all.^[2][14]

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 m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. remédio
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. remediar
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. remédio
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. remedio
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. remède
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. remedium
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. remedium
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. medeor
10. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. remedio
11. ^ 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, 318
12. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 187
13. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7968
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. remédio
15. ^ 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. remédio
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. remédio