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roupa

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word roupa

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1200s More words from the 13th century
Borrowed from
Gothic *𐍂𐌰𐌿𐍀𐌰
Ultimate origin
Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌿𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈʁo(w).pɐ/, [ˈho(ʊ̯).pɐ][1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /ˈʁo(w).pɐ/, [ˈχo(ʊ̯).pɐ][1]
  • Portugal: /ˈʁo(w).pɐ/[1]
  • Northern, Portugal: /ˈʁow.pɐ/[1]

Forms

roupa f (plural roupas)[1] Houaiss records rroupa in the 15th century and ropa in 1720.[2]

Etymology

According to Cunha and Wiktionary it is borrowed from Gothic *𐍂𐌰𐌿𐍀𐌰 (*raupa, “booty”), a noun of 𐍂𐌰𐌿𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (raupjan, “to pluck”).[3][1][4] Houaiss starts instead from Proto-West Germanic *rauba (“booty, spoils taken from the enemy”), through the Medieval Latin form raupa.[2] Nascentes finds the /p/ in place of /b/ obscure, notes that Spanish ropa has it too, and cites rauba from the Lex Alamannorum.[5] Cunha and the DDGM connect it with roubar, also of Germanic origin.[3][6] The Gothic verb meant “to pluck” (ears of grain), and is related to Old English rīepan (“to pluck”).[1][7]

The first sense was “spoils of war”, then “goods, possessions”, and finally “clothing”: plunder often consisted of household goods and clothes.[3][8][5] Italian roba kept the old sense beside “clothing”, as French robe has the sense “garment”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1136 has the form raupa.[2] In Galician-Portuguese the word is recorded from the 13th century.[2][3] The Crónica Geral still has the old sense “booty”: the raiders took roupas of many kinds from a town, and elsewhere carried off cattle, beasts and roupa.[6] The Miragres de Santiago already use it for clothes: a woman longs to touch the threads of the rroupa a man is wearing.[6]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) renders it with Latin stragula, bed coverings.[9] Bluteau, who derives it from Italian robba, records three senses: the outer garment, the sheets and blankets of a bed, and all the cloth furnishings of a house; he quotes the proverb Dà Deos o frio conforme a roupa “God sends the cold according to the clothes”.[10] Morais (1789) adds cloth for garments as merchandise and a cloak or outer garment.[11] Today it means clothing in general and household linen, and figuratively a cover that hides the truth, or a reputation.[2][12] Cunha records enroupado from the 17th century.[3]

Timeline

  • 1136 – raupa in a Latin charter.[2]
  • 13th century – first records of roupa in Galician-Portuguese.[2][3]
  • 15th century – the spelling rroupa.[2]
  • c. 1450 – first record in the CTA corpus, in the Livro das tres vertudes.[13]
  • 1569 – Cardoso renders roupa with Latin stragula.[9]
  • 17th century – first record of enroupado.[3]
  • 1720 – the spelling ropa.[2]
  • 1789 – Morais records cloth for garments as merchandise.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. clothes, clothing: a garment or set of garments.[2][4][1]
  2. The cloth a garment is made of; any fabric used to cover or adorn.[2][12]
  3. Household linen: roupa de cama, roupa de banho.[2][4][14]
  4. (figurative) A covering that hides the truth.[2][12]
  5. (figurative) Reputation, good or bad.[2]

Word family

  • roupão
  • roupagem
  • enroupar
  • roupeiro
  • roubar
  • Spanish ropa
  • Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌿𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (raupjan)

Usage notes

Roupa de baixo (in Portugal also roupa interior) is underwear.[2][4] In Brazilian football bater roupa is said of a goalkeeper who catches the ball and lets it slip;[2][14] lavar roupa suja means to air one's dirty linen, trading accusations.[2][14]

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 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. roupa
  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. roupa
  4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. roupa
  5. ^ 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. 449
  6. ^ 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. roupa
  7. ^ Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 233
  8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. roupa
  9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. roupa
  10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. roupa
  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, 359
  12. ^ a b c 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. roupa
  13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. roupa
  14. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. roupa

Related etymologies

  • guai · also from Gothic
  • rico · also from Gothic
Cite this entry

“Roupa.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/roupa. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·