sobrinho

Forms

sobrinho m (plural sobrinhos, feminine sobrinha, feminine plural sobrinhas)^[1] Medieval texts write sobrynn, sobrino (1306), sobrinho, sobriho, sobriño, sobrio and sonbrinho.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sobrīnus (“second cousin; cousin”), written Old Galician-Portuguese sobrinno and Old Galician-Portuguese sobrino in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The same Latin word is Galician sobriño, Asturian sobrín and Spanish sobrino.^[1][4]

In classical Latin the word meant a second cousin, the son of a parent's first cousin.^[5] Corominas explains the shift to “nephew” in the Iberian Peninsula: the first cousin came to be called cōnsobrīnus prīmus (whence primo), the old word was used for the more distant collateral kin, and when nepōs (“nephew; grandson”) fell out of use in the centre and west of the Peninsula it took over the sense “nephew” as well.^[4][6] Nascentes notes the change of meaning.^[7]

The Latin word is the noun use of Proto-Italic *swezrīnos (“of the sister”), an adjective from *swezōr (“sister”), the source of soror.^[1][8] De Vaan explains the /b/ by a change of /sr/ through /fr/ to /br/, and takes the vowel of the first syllable from the word for “sister”.^[8] The word for “sister” goes back to Proto-Indo-European *swésōr.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century have Un sobrynn' est' abadessa avia “this abbess had a nephew”.^[9][2] Another cantiga speaks of un seu sobrinho que aqui chegou “a nephew of his who came here”.^[10] The sense is already “a brother's or sister's son”.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has not changed since the medieval texts, but the Latin equivalent puzzled the lexicographers: Cardoso (1569) rendered sobrinho with Latin nepos, and Barbosa (1611) objected that Cicero and the ancients did not use nepos so, proposing filius fratris and filius sororis.^[11][12] Bluteau repeated the objection, citing Vossius.^[13] The compounds sobrinho segundo and sobrinho-neto name the son of a nephew or niece.^[2][14] Nascentes records Sobrinho as a surname given to someone who bears the same name as an uncle.^[15]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, as sobrynn, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][9]
• 1306 – the spelling sobrino.^[2]
• 14th century – the spelling sobrinho.^[2][3]
• c. 1400 – a Flos Sanctorum fragment from Santiago de Compostela uses the word.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin nepos.^[11]
• 1611 – Barbosa rejects nepos as a Latin equivalent.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. nephew: the son of one's brother or sister, or of one's brother-in-law or sister-in-law.^[2][17][1]
2. sobrinho segundo, sobrinho em segundo grau or sobrinho-neto: a grandnephew, the son of a nephew or niece.^[2][14]

Word family

• sobrinha
• sobrinho-neto

Related words

• primo
• Latin sobrīnus
• Galician sobriño
• Spanish sobrino

Usage notes

Houaiss and the original Caldas Aulete record a nautical sobrinho (1881), one of the topmost trapezoidal sails of a ship, above the sobres;^[2][18] Houaiss derives it from sobre with the suffix -inho.^[2][18]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sobrinho
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sobrinho
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 280
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sobrīnus
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sobrino
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sobrinho
8. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. sobrinno
10. ^ 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. sobrinho
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sobrinho
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sobrinho
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sobrinho
14. ^ 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. sobrinho
15. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. 318
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. sobrinho
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sobrinho
18. ^ a b 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. sobrinho