sonho

Forms

sonho m (plural sonhos)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese also wrote sonno;^[2][3] Houaiss records soño in the 14th century and ssonhos in the 15th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin somnium (“dream”), written Old Galician-Portuguese sonho in the oldest texts.^[3][2][1] The same Latin word is Galician soño, Italian sogno, French songe and Catalan somni.^[4][1] In Spanish, Spanish sueño merged the Latin word with somnus (“sleep”), and means both “sleep” and “dream”;^[3][5] Portuguese keeps the two apart, with sono for “sleep”.^[3][5] For the ordinary dream, French rêve is the usual word.^[3]

The Latin noun is derived from the word for “sleep”, which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *swépnos (“sleep”), the source also of Sanskrit स्वप्न (svápna, “sleep, dream”) and Ancient Greek ὕπνος (húpnos, “sleep”).^[6][7][1] The word for “dream” may continue an old derivative, comparable with स्वप्न्यम् (svápnyam, “vision in a dream”) and Old Church Slavonic съниѥ (sŭnije), or be a Latin formation.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the noun to the 13th century from Cunha's records, and Cunha has both sonho and sonno in that century.^[3][2] A cantiga warns per sonho, mui gran vergonça averedes, “in a dream, you will have great shame”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as what is pictured to the imagination in sleep, and quotes Vieira on dreams as a mute painting of a person's cares and desires.^[9] Morais (1789) adds the figurative sense, something imagined that has no reality.^[10] Later senses are a daydream, a vain hope, and a cherished ambition: o sonho dele é viajar.^[3][11]

Morais's edition of 1813 records sonhos as a light pastry of flour and eggs fried in butter and dipped in syrup.^[12] They are a traditional Christmas sweet; in Brazil sonho is also a filled doughnut, the Berliner (bola-de-berlim).^[3][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, sonho and sonno.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – first dated text in the CTA, the Horto do Esposo.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin somnium.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais records the figurative sense “something imagined”.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais records sonhos, the pastry.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dream: the images and thoughts that pass through the mind during sleep.^[3][11][1]
2. A daydream, a fantasy; a hope with no basis, an illusion.^[3][15]
3. A strong wish, an aspiration: o sonho dela é ser médica.^[3][1]
4. Something or someone very beautiful.^[3]
5. (cooking) A light fried pastry of flour and eggs, sugared or soaked in syrup, a traditional Christmas sweet.^[3][1][15]
6. (Brazil, cooking) A filled doughnut, a Berliner.^[3][1]

Word family

• sonhário

Related words

• sonhar
• sono
• Latin somnium
• Galician soño
• Spanish sueño

Usage notes

Morais (1813) records the phrase dizer o sonho e a soltura, to explain the riddle or mystery, and notes that in Spanish it means to insult.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sono
3. ^ 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. sonho
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 327
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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. sonho
9. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sonho
10. ^ 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, 418
11. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sonho
12. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 722
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. sonho
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sonho
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. sonho