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roubar

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word roubar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s Cantigas de Santa Maria More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin raubo
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *raubōną
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin raubō
Portuguese roubar
Spanish robar
From the same root
Spanish robador ← robar

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ʁo(w)ˈba(ʁ)/, [ho(ʊ̯)ˈba(h)][1]
  • São-Paulo: /ʁo(w)ˈba(ɾ)/, [ho(ʊ̯)ˈba(ɾ)][1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /ʁo(w)ˈba(ʁ)/, [χo(ʊ̯)ˈba(χ)][1]
  • Caipira: /ʁo(w)ˈba(ɻ)/, [ho(ʊ̯)ˈba(ɻ)][1]

Forms

roubar (first-person singular present roubo, first-person singular preterite roubei, past participle roubado)[1] Houaiss records robaron in the 13th century and arrouban and rroubou in the 14th.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin raubō (“to rob, plunder”), written Old Galician-Portuguese roubar in the oldest texts.[1][2][3] Houaiss, Nascentes and the DLP describe it as a Germanic verb ⟨raubōn⟩ “to plunder” taken into Vulgar Latin;[2][4][5][1] Wiktionary notes that the Latin verb is attested in the Lex Salica and derives it from Frankish *raubōn, from Proto-Germanic *raubōną.[2][4][5][1] Silva Bastos (1912) still derived it from Latin raptō (“to seize”).[6]

The same Germanic verb is Galician roubar, Spanish robar, Catalan robar, Occitan raubar and Italian rubare, and Old French rober, whence French dérober.[1][7][8] In Germanic it is Old High German roubōn, Old English rēafian (“to rob, plunder”), German rauben and the English word reave.[9][10] Corominas notes that roupa “clothes” and its Romance cognates come from the same Germanic verb.[11]

The Proto-Germanic verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *Hrewp- (“to snatch”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin law of 1179 already has the word: non uadant extra uillam apprehendere homines neque roubare neque afforciare “let them not go outside the town to seize men, nor to rob, nor to use force”.[12] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the verb is used of pirates who roubavan en mar quant'achavan “robbed at sea whatever they found” and of a cursed thief que romeus roubava “who robbed pilgrims”.[12] Houaiss and Cunha date it to the 13th century.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The medieval senses were “to plunder, sack” and “to rob”: the satirical cantigas have roubar caminhos “to rob travellers on the roads”, and the Crónica Troiana speaks of the treasures the Greeks had plundered.[12][13] Bluteau (1712) explains that roubar says more than furtar, in the amount taken and in the force used.[14] Morais (1789) adds “to abduct” a girl from her father's house, roubar a alma or o coração “to win someone's heart”, and a sense in card games.[15]

Modern law keeps the old distinction: roubo is theft by violence or threat, furto theft without it.[2][16][17] The figurative senses “to enrapture”, “to steal a kiss” and “to plagiarise” are all recorded today.[2][18] In Brazilian football a referee who favours one side is said to roubar the other.[2]

Timeline

  • 1179 – roubare in a Latin law.[12]
  • 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use roubar;[12][2] Houaiss records robaron.[12][2]
  • 13th century – first record of roubo and roubador.[3]
  • 14th century – arrouban and rroubou.[2]
  • c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (witness of 1390–1437) uses the verb.[19]
  • 1569 – Cardoso renders roubar with Latin praedor.[20]
  • 1712 – Bluteau sets roubar against furtar.[14]
  • 1789 – Morais adds the senses “abduct” and “win the heart”.[15]
  • 1899 – first record of roubalheira “large-scale theft”.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (law) To rob: to take another's property by violence or threat.[2][16][1]
  2. To steal, take without permission (furtar): Roubaram-lhe a bicicleta.[16][1]
  3. To rob a place: Assaltaram e roubaram a farmácia.[2][16][1]
  4. To take fraudulently; to cheat someone of what is theirs.[2][16]
  5. To abduct (raptar).[2][16]
  6. To deprive someone or something of a quality: O cansaço rouba-lhe a alegria.[2][1]
  7. To sack, plunder a town or region.[2][16]
  8. To rescue someone from danger or captivity.[2]
  9. To enrapture; to win someone's heart: Aquela menina roubou-lhe o coração.[2][18]
  10. To win someone away from another person.[2][1]
  11. To steal a kiss or caress.[2]
  12. To plagiarise (plagiar).[2][18]
  13. (Brazil, sport) To favour one side unfairly against another.[2]
  14. (intransitive) To cheat, as in weight or measure.[2][1]

Word family

  • roubo
  • roubador
  • roubadia
  • roubalheira
  • arroubar
  • rouba-monte

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 r s t u v w x Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. roubar
  3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. roubar
  4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. roubar
  5. ^ a b 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. roubar
  6. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. roubar
  7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 35
  8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. dérober
  9. ^ 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. robar
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. robar
  12. ^ a b c d e f 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. roubar
  13. ^ 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. roubar
  14. ^ 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. roubar
  15. ^ 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. s.v. roubar
  16. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. roubar
  17. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. roubar
  18. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. roubar
  19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. roubar
  20. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. roubar

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Roubar.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/roubar. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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