rotundo

Forms

rotundo (feminine rotunda, masculine plural rotundos, feminine plural rotundas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin rotundus (“round, wheel-shaped”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin adjective is derived from rota (“wheel”).^[2][5] The OLD takes it to have been a verbal adjective in origin, like secundus, and Wiktionary reports de Vaan's suggestion that its vowel was coloured by the noun for “wheel”.^[5][1]

The inherited doublet is redondo, from the variant Vulgar Latin *retundus.^[1][6][7] The Latin word lives on in the same way in Spanish redondo, Catalan rodó, French rond, Italian tondo and Romanian rătund.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1572, the year of Os Lusíadas.^[2] Bluteau quotes its line from the seventh canto, Curral de quem governa o Ceo Rotundo “the fold of Him who rules the round heaven”, where the word has its Latin sense “round”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau and Morais give only “round”, and Bluteau also lists the title Nossa Senhora a Rotunda, given to the Virgin from the round shape of a temple.^[9][10] The figurative sense “fat, corpulent” is recorded by Cunha and illustrated in the old Caldas Aulete with a line of Garrett about the rotunda figure of Sancho Panza.^[3][11] The modern dictionaries add “categorical, flat”, said above all of a refusal or a denial, and the DLP also has “total, absolute”.^[12][13][11]

Cunha dates the derivative rotundidade to the 17th century, rotundifólio to 1874 and the noun rotunda to 1881.^[3]

Timeline

• 1572 – Os Lusíadas speak of the Ceo Rotundo.^[2][9]
• 17th century – first record of rotundidade.^[3]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau glosses the word as redondo.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais lists it with the line of Camões.^[10]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives it from Latin rotundus.^[14]
• 1874 – first record of rotundifólio.^[3]
• 1881 – first record of the noun rotunda.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. round, spherical or circular; redondo.^{[2][12][15][1]}
2. (figurative) plump, fat, corpulent.^{[2][3][15][12]}
3. Categorical, flat, admitting no reply (of an answer, a refusal or a denial).^[12][13][11]
4. Total, absolute.^[12]

Word family

• rotunda
• rotundidade
• rotundifólio

Related words

• redondo
• roda
• Latin rotundus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. rotundo
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. rotundo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. rotundo
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. rotundus
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. redondo
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. redondo
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7400
9. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rotundo
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, 358
11. ^ 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. rotundo
12. ^ a b c d e 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. rotundo
13. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. rotundo
14. ^ 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, 342
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. rotundo