só

Forms

só m or f (plural sós)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote the masculine soo and the feminine soa.^[2][3] Houaiss notes that the feminine soa was used from the 13th century and was replaced from the 16th by the masculine form, which then served for both genders.^[2] Barbosa (1611) still gives soo beside só.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sōlus (“alone”), written Old Galician-Portuguese soo (feminine Old Galician-Portuguese soa) in the oldest texts.^[2][5][1] Nascentes derives the word from Latin through these two archaic forms.^[5] The learned solo is a doublet of the same Latin word.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician só, Spanish solo, Catalan sol, Occitan sol, French seul and Italian solo.^[6][1] In Old French, Old Italian, Old Occitan and Old Spanish the word was also used as an uninflected adverb, as the Portuguese word is today.^[6][7]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear.^[8][1] The traditional explanation from the reflexive pronoun *swé, “by oneself”, is rejected by de Vaan, who considers a link with *solh₂- (“whole”) semantically possible.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use soo and soa for “alone, by oneself”: Soo, sen conpannia, / o camynn'enton colleu / o moç' “alone, without company, the boy then took the road”.^[3] The satirical cantigas of Afonso X have Med' ei do pertigueir' e ando soo “I fear the bailiff and go alone”, and other troubadours use the word for “only”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Both main uses were there from the start: the adjective “alone, unaccompanied” and the adverb “only”, which Houaiss dates to the 13th century as well.^[2][3] Feijó's spelling book of 1734 treats só as an adverb meaning sómente and so rejects a plural soses, but the plural sós of the adjective is normal today (a sós “on one's own”).^[9][1][2]

From “alone” come the senses “lonely, withdrawn from society” and “deserted, unfrequented” (of a place).^[2] The adverb “only” led to the sense “single, sole” (um só).^[2][10] The noun só names, in the card game voltarete, a hand played only with the cards first dealt.^[2][11] The conjunctional phrase só que “except that, but” introduces an objection.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – soo and soa in the cantigas, both as “alone” and as “only”.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – só in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[12]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Só by Latin solus.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa heads the word Só, aliàs soo.^[4]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses só as “unique”.^[14]
• 1734 – Feijó treats só as an adverb with no plural.^[9]
• 1755 – Folqman records só por só “alone with someone”.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. alone, without company: Ela gosta de jantar só.^[2][10][1]
2. single, sole, only one: Não houve um só voto contra.^[2][1]
3. lonely, living apart from others; feeling isolated.^[2][1]
4. Of a place: deserted, unfrequented.^[2][16]
5. Without help or support, left to oneself.^[2][16]

Adverb

1. only, just, merely: Só quero dormir um pouco.^[2][1]
2. (formal) Alone, without help.^[1]

Noun

1. A person who lives alone or has no family.^[17][18]
2. In the card game voltarete, a hand played with the cards first dealt, without drawing.^[2][11]

Word family

• somente
• sozinho

Related words

• saudade
• solidão
• solo
• solitário
• Latin solus
• Galician só

Usage notes

Fixed phrases: a sós “on one's own, in private”;^[2][18] só por só “one by one”;^[2][18] só que “except that, but”; and the proverb antes só que mal acompanhado “better alone than in bad company”.^[2][18]

In Trás-os-Montes a noun só names the cover of a beehive or the bottom of a vessel; the sources give no etymology for it.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. só
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. soo
4. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. só
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. só
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8080
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 295
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, p. s.v. sōlus
9. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. só
10. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. só
11. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. só
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. só
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. só
14. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. só
15. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. só
16. ^ 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. só
17. ^ 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. só
18. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8550
19. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. só