ruído

Forms

ruído m (plural ruídos)^[1] Old spellings are rruido (13th century), roydo, rroydo, arroydo and arruydo (14th century), and roido (15th century).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rūgītus (“roaring”), which already meant “din” in Vulgar Latin; the oldest texts write Old Galician-Portuguese rruido.^[3][2][5][1] The Latin noun is an action noun of rūgiō (“to roar, bellow”), the source of the Portuguese verb rugir.^[3][1][6] The learned rugido “roar” is its doublet.^[1]

The same Latin noun is Galician ruído, Spanish ruido, Old French ruit, Italian ruggito and Romanian ruget.^[7][1] The Spanish word is first recorded as Old Spanish roído in the poem of the Cid.^[8]

De Vaan compares the Latin verb with Ancient Greek ἐρεύγομαι (ereúgomai, “to roar”) and posits a root Proto-Indo-European *(H)ru- (“to roar”), to which various consonants were added.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is rruido, of the 13th century.^[3] Lorenzo cites todo rruido from a cantiga of Estevan da Guarda, grãdes roydos “great noises” from the Crónica Geral and hũu muy grande arroydo “a very great uproar” from the Crónica de 1344.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word meant both a loud noise and a commotion; the forms with a- (arroydo, arruydo) were frequent in the 14th century.^[4][2] Figurative senses developed later: a rumour, a scandal or stir (fazer ruído “to cause a sensation”), and pomp or show.^[3][10][11] In the 20th century the word took technical senses in acoustics, telecommunications, phonetics and medicine, among them ruído branco “white noise”.^[3][5] In Rio Grande do Sul estar no ruído means to know about a matter.^[12]

Timeline

• 13th century – rruido.^[3][2]
• 14th century – roydo, rroydo and arroydo, in the Crónica Geral and the Crónica de 1344.^[2][4]
• 15th century – the spelling roido.^[3]
• 1651 – first record of the derivative ruidoso.^[13]
• 1682 – roido in a private letter.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A noise caused by something falling or by bodies striking each other; a crash, a din.^[3][15][1]
2. Any confused or unharmonious sound.^[3][5]
3. A continuous, prolonged murmur; bustle (bulício): o ruído do trânsito.^[3][11]
4. (figurative) A rumour, usually unfounded.^[3][10]
5. The confused sound of many voices; an uproar, a tumult.^[3][15]
6. (figurative) A sensation, a scandal;^[3][10][11] fazer ruído, to cause a stir.^[3][10][11]
7. (figurative) pomp, show, ostentation.^[3][5]
8. (acoustics) A sound made of random vibrations without harmonic relations;^[3] ruído branco, white noise.^[3]
9. (communication, telecommunications) Any disturbance or unwanted signal that interferes with the transmission of a message.^[3][16]
10. (phonetics) The sound produced when the airstream is obstructed, as in consonants.^[3]
11. (medicine) A sound from an organ heard by auscultation.^[3]

Word family

• ruidoso

Related words

• rugido
• rugir
• Galician ruído
• Spanish ruido

Usage notes

The same spelling is also the past participle of ruir “to collapse”, which has a separate source, Latin ruō.^[17][1]

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 Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ruído
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ruído
4. ^ a b c d 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. ruido
5. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ruído
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7428
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 83
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d 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. ruído
11. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8200
12. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. ruído
13. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ruidoso
14. ^ 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. ruído
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ruído
16. ^ 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. ruído
17. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ruir