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senhor

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word senhor

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s the cantigas More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin senior
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *sénos
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin senex
Latin senior
French seigneur
Romanian senior
Italian signore
Portuguese senhor
Spanish señor
English senior
From the same root
Latin senātus ← senex
Latin senectūs ← senex
Latin senīlis ← senex
Latin senium ← senex
French monseigneur ← seigneur
Italian signora ← signore
Italian sissignore ← signore

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /sẽˈɲoʁ/, [sẽˈj̃oh][1]
  • São-Paulo: /sẽˈɲoɾ/, [sẽˈj̃oɾ][1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /sẽˈɲoʁ/, [sẽˈj̃oχ][1]
  • Caipira: /sẽˈɲoɻ/, [sẽˈj̃oɻ][1]

Forms

senhor m (plural senhores, feminine senhora, feminine plural senhoras)[1] The 13th century wrote senhor, senhur, sennor, senner and senor.[2][3] The word was also feminine in the old language: mia senhor “my lady”.[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin senior (“older, elder”), written Old Galician-Portuguese senhor and sennor in the 13th century.[2][3][1] The Latin word is the comparative of senex (“old; an old man”).[2][3] In Late Latin it became a term of respect equal to dominus (“master, lord”).[2][5] Nascentes's fuller dictionary quotes a capitulary of Charles the Bald in which the Latin word means “lord”.[6]

The same Latin word is Galician señor, Spanish señor, Catalan senyor, Occitan senhor, Italian signore and French seigneur.[6][1]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sénos (“old”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is common in the 13th-century cantigas.[4] It names God (Nostro Senhor), a master (Afonso X mocks servants que non tragian senhor “who had no master”), and, as a feminine, the lady the troubadour loves: almost every cantiga d'amor calls her mia senhor in its first lines.[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Like the other nouns in -or, senhor was masculine and feminine in the old language.[2] Viterbo found the feminine frequent until the 16th century, as in a dita Senhor Rainha.[8] Barbosa in 1611 explains it as the master who has servants.[9] Bluteau records that the Portuguese authors agree on the Latin origin.[10] Morais adds the owner of a slave and senhor de si “master of oneself”.[11][12]

In Brazil the senhor de engenho was the owner of a sugar mill, and popular speech reduced the form of address to sinhô, siô, sô, nhô and seu.[2] O senhor became a polite pronoun of address.[2][13] Used before a noun, it now means “great, impressive”.[2][13][14]

The word lives on in the Portuguese-based creoles: nho and sinhor in Kabuverdianu, nhor in Guinea-Bissau Creole, sinyor in Kristang.[1]

Timeline

  • 13th century – senhor for God, master and beloved lady in the cantigas.[4]
  • 1350 – senhor in the Trasladação de S. Nicolau (14th-century witness).[15]
  • 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin dominus.[16]
  • 1611 – Barbosa explains it as the master of servants.[9]
  • 1632 – the learned spelling senior.[2]
  • 1789 – Morais records the owner of a slave or a thing.[11]
  • 1798–1799 – Viterbo notes the feminine use until the 16th century.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (historical) A feudal lord.[2][17]
  2. An owner, proprietor; the master of a house, an employer;[18] (Brazil) senhor de engenho, the owner of a sugar mill.[2][17]
  3. A person who has power or control over something or over oneself: senhor de si.[2][17]
  4. A sovereign, ruler;[18] (historical) a title of some monarchs and nobles.[2][17]
  5. A gentleman; a middle-aged or elderly man.[2][17]
  6. A respectful form of address to a man, abbreviated Sr.;[18] o senhor as a polite word for “you”.[2][14]
  7. A man whose name is not known or not given.[2][13]
  8. (capitalised) Deus (God), Jesus Christ; the consecrated host.[2][19]
  9. (historical) The owner of slaves.[2]
  10. (obsolete) The husband in relation to his wife.[2][19]

Adjective

  1. (before a noun) Great, imposing: um senhor jantar.[2][13][14]

Word family

  • senhora
  • senhorear
  • assenhorear
  • senhoria
  • senhoril
  • senhorio
  • senhorzinho

Usage notes

Brazilian popular speech uses the reduced forms sinhô, nhô, sô and seu before a name.[2][18] The phrase senhor do seu nariz describes someone who answers to nobody.[2][20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. senhor
  3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. senhor
  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. senhor
  5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. senhor
  6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 464
  7. ^ 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. senhor
  8. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 312
  9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. senhor
  10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. senhor
  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, 390
  12. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 686
  13. ^ a b c d 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. senhor
  14. ^ 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. senhor
  15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. senhor
  16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. senhor
  17. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. senhor
  18. ^ a b c d Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. senhor
  19. ^ 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. senhor
  20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8405

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Senhor.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/senhor. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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