rio

Forms

rio m (plural rios)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote rio and rrio, and in the 14th century also rriio and rryo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin rius (“river”), the Vulgar Latin form of Latin rīvus (“brook, stream, channel”), written Old Galician-Portuguese rio in the oldest texts.^[2][1][4][5] The form without -v- is already found in inscriptions and in texts of popular Latin.^[3][6]

The same Latin word is Galician río, Spanish río, Catalan riu, Occitan riu, French ru, Italian rio and Romanian râu.^[6][1] García de Diego derives the Spanish, Portuguese and Galician words from the Vulgar Latin form and the Catalan one from the classical form.^[7]

The Latin word meant a small stream or channel; as it grew into the general word for “river”, it took the place of flūmen and fluvius.^[5][8] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *rīwo- and PIE *h₃riH-uo- “whirling”, with cognates in ὀρίνω (orī́nō, “to whirl, stir”) and rīð (“stream, brook”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 925 already has the Romance form riu.^[2] In the 13th century the Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of people drowned no rio and of a man who died no rio que ven por Paris “in the river that flows through Paris”.^[3] A cantiga d'amigo has Nunca vi cervo que volvesse o rio “I never saw a stag that stirred up the river”.^[9] The Miragres de Santiago say that Compostela lies ontre dous rrios “between two rivers”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) lists the rivers of the classical underworld, the Rio do Inferno and the Rio de esquecimento (Lethe).^[10] Bluteau (1712–1728) derived the word from the Greek verb for “to flow”.^[11] Vieira (1871–1874) collected proverbs such as Em rio quedo, não mettas teu dedo “don't put your finger into still water” and Rio torto, dez vezes se passa “a winding river is crossed ten times”.^[12]

The figurative senses, a great flow of liquid and any great quantity, are in the old Caldas Aulete and the modern dictionaries; in Brazil rio comprido is very weak coffee.^[13][2][14] Guinea-Bissau Creole and Papiamentu have riu, and Saramaccan lío.^[1]

Timeline

• 925 – riu in a Latin charter.^[2]
• 13th century – first vernacular records, spelt rio.^[2][3]
• 1392 – the spelling rrio.^[2]
• c. 1440 – rio in the Vida de Santa Maria Egipcíaca (copied 1431–1446).^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary heads the word Rio.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists the rivers of the underworld.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau derives the word from Greek.^[11]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira collects proverbs about rivers.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A river: a natural stream of water flowing from higher ground into another river, a lake or the sea.^[2][4][1]
2. A great flow of liquid: um rio de suor.^[2][13]
3. Anything that flows or stretches like a river.^[2][17]
4. (figurative, usually plural) A great amount of anything.^[2][14][1]

Word family

• ria
• riacho

Related words

• derivar
• rival
• rivalidade
• Latin rivus
• Galician río

Usage notes

Correr rios de tinta “to run rivers of ink” is said of a subject written about at great length.^[2][13] Vieira notes that some writers wanted the verb form rio “I laugh” spelt riyo to keep it apart from the noun, and records a nautical rio, a thin rope of two or three strands.^[12]

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 h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. rio
3. ^ a b c d e 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. rio
4. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. rio
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. rio
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7341
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. rivus
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. rio
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rio
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. rio
12. ^ a b c 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, 307
13. ^ a b c 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. rio
14. ^ 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. rio
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. rio
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rio
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. rio