soldo

Forms

soldo m (plural soldos)^[1] Houaiss's historical forms are solidos (933) and soldo (984) in Latin charters, and soldo, solído and solldo in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin soldus (“a gold coin”), the contracted form of Latin solidus (“solid, whole”), written Old Galician-Portuguese soldo in the old language.^[2][1][3] The adjective was used as a noun for the coin, with nummus (“coin”) understood: “a whole, solid coin”, and Late Latin already had it as the name of a gold coin.^[2][4] The contracted form already appears in Varro and Horace.^[5]

The same word is Italian soldo, French sou, Old Occitan sol, Catalan sou, Spanish sueldo and Galician soldo.^[6][7] Spanish has soldo from 1062–1063 and the present form from 1129.^[8] The learned doublet is sólido.^[1]

De Vaan derives the Latin adjective from Proto-Indo-European *solh₂-i-dʰh₁-o- (“entire”), from the root of salvus (“safe, whole”) and sollus (“whole”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters of Portugal already have solidos in 933 and uno soldo gallecano in 984.^[2][3] In the Romance texts a document of 1228 has in cada ano un soldo “one soldo every year”, and one of 1253–1254 XXX soldos de renda, with the sense of a coin of small value.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval language the soldo was a coin of little value: a cantiga d'escarnho of Alfonso X tells of one who would not give ũũ soldo to redeem his soul, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria count cinco soldos e mealla.^[3][10] Viterbo writes that Portugal had soldos of gold, silver and copper, and that the copper ones lasted until King João II.^[11] Bluteau adds that before 1395 twenty soldos made one old livra of 36 réis.^[12]

Houaiss dates the sense “pay for a service, wage” to the 15th century, and Cardoso (1569) renders soldo with Latin stipendium.^[2][13] For Spanish, Corominas explains that the pay of a mercenary was for a time one sueldo, so that the coin's name came to mean his pay.^[8] Barbosa (1611) defines it as what is given to the soldier and records soldo á livra “pro rata”.^[14] In Brazil it is now the basic pay of the military, to which allowances are added.^[15][16] It also named the French sou, the twentieth of a franc.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 933 – a Latin charter has solidos.^[2][3]
• 984 – uno soldo gallecano in a Latin charter.^[3]
• 1228 – un soldo in a Romance document.^[3]
• 13th century – the coin in the cantigas d'escarnho and the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• 15th century – the sense “wage, pay”, spelt solldo.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin stipendium.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa records soldo á livra.^[14]
• 1712 – Bluteau explains the old Portuguese soldo and its value.^[12]
• 1899 – Houaiss's first date for the name of various old Portuguese coins.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military) The pay of soldiers; in Brazil, the basic pay of the military.^{[2][15][17][1]}
2. Payment for any service; wage, remuneração.^[2][17][1]
3. (numismatics, historical) The solidus, a gold coin of ancient Rome.^[2][1]
4. (numismatics, historical) Any of several old Portuguese coins.^[2][17][1]
5. (numismatics, dated) The French sou, the twentieth part of a franc.^[2][15]
6. (obsolete) An obligation taken on when renting land.^[2][16]

Related words

• soldado
• sólido
• Latin solidus
• Spanish sueldo
• Italian soldo

Usage notes

A soldo de means “in the pay of, at the orders of”, and trazer alguém a soldo to keep someone in one's pay.^[2][17] The noun has a closed /o/, also in the plural soldos;^[15][16] Aurélio and Aulete distinguish it from soldo, a form of the verb soldar.^[15][16]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. soldo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. soldo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. soldo
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. solidus
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8069
7. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. soldo
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 325
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. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. soldo
11. ^ 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, 329
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. soldo
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. soldo
14. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. soldo
15. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. soldo
16. ^ 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. soldo
17. ^ 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. soldo