solteiro

Forms

solteiro (feminine solteira, masculine plural solteiros, feminine plural solteiras)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote solteyro, solteira and solteyras.^[2][3][4] Houaiss also records a 15th-century sortera.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sōlitārius (“living alone, solitary”), written Old Galician-Portuguese solteyro in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][5] Cunha calls it the popular outcome of the Latin word, beside the learned doublet solitário, which was taken from Latin later.^[3][1] García de Diego glosses the Latin word in this use as “loose, free”.^[6] Wiktionary notes that popular feeling links the word with solto “loose, unbound”, a folk etymology.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician solteiro, Spanish soltero and Catalan solter, all meaning “unmarried”.^[1][7][8][6] Nascentes points out that the Latin word for an unmarried man was a different one, Latin caelebs.^[5]

The Latin adjective is formed from sōlitās (“loneliness”) with the suffix -ārius, and that noun from sōlus (“alone”).^[9][1][10] The origin of the Latin word for “alone” is unclear: it was traditionally traced to the reflexive pronoun Proto-Indo-European *swé, an explanation de Vaan thinks hardly possible, and Wiktionary reports that he and other recent scholars connect it rather with *solh₂- (“whole”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the second half of the 13th century speak of “bad women, both married and unmarried” (maas molleres, e casadas e solteyras).^[4][2] A cantiga d'escarnho by Afons' Eanes do Coton describes a lady who is casad' é, ou viúv' ou solteira “married, or a widow, or unmarried”.^[4] From the first records the word means “not married”.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

The Ordenações Afonsinas, as Vieira quotes them, set Vassallos solteiros, e casados “vassals unmarried and married” side by side.^[12] Folqman's dictionary of 1755 renders it with the Latin coelebs.^[13] Morais (1813) adds meladura solteira, in the sugar mills the first boiling of the day that fills the cauldron alone, and mulher solteira for a woman without a husband and also for one of loose life.^[14]

Figurative and technical senses followed: a sailor's rope that is free and ready for use, and, figuratively, “lacking” something, as in a line of Antônio Nobre that Aurélio quotes, Solteiro de venturas “unwedded to good fortune”.^[2][15] Houaiss also records a semana solteira, a week with no holiday, which Nascentes explains as an affective use, and in Brazil a female animal that has had no young.^[2][5] In informal Brazilian use the word now also covers people who are separated or divorced, or whose spouse is away.^[2][15] In the Algarve, solteiro said of a dish means served plain, without anything beside it, as in arroz solteiro “plain rice”.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 13th century – casadas e solteyras in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][2]
• 15th century – the spelling solteiro and the variant sortera.^[2]
• 1755 – Folqman glosses the word with Latin coelebs.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais defines it simply as “not married”.^[18]
• 1813 – Morais adds meladura solteira of the sugar mills and mulher solteira.^[14]
• 1858 – first dictionary record of the augmentative solteirão.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. unmarried, single: not yet married.^[2][16][1]
2. (figurative) Lacking or deprived of something, as in solteiro de alegrias.^[2][15]
3. (Brazil, informal) No longer married: separated or divorced (separado, divorciado).^[2][15]
4. (Brazil, informal) Married but with one's spouse away for a time.^[15]
5. Of a week: having no holiday (feriado) in it.^[2][20]
6. (Brazil) Of a female animal: that has had no young.^[2][15]
7. (nautical) Of a rope or cable: not in use but free and ready for it.^[2][21]
8. (Algarve) Of food: served on its own, without anything to go with it.^[16]

Noun

1. A person who has never married; a bachelor or, in the feminine solteira, an unmarried woman.^[2][16][1]

Word family

• solteirão
• solteirona

Related words

• solitário
• Latin sōlitārius
• Galician solteiro
• Spanish soltero

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. solteiro
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. solteiro
4. ^ 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. solteiro
5. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. solteiro
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. solitarius
7. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. solteiro
8. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. soltero
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sōlitārius
10. ^ 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
11. ^ 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. solteiro
12. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 579
13. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. solteiro
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 719
15. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. solteiro
16. ^ 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. solteiro
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8609
18. ^ 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, 416
19. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. solteirão
20. ^ 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. solteiro
21. ^ 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. solteiro