sultão

Forms

sultão m (plural sultões, feminine sultana, feminine plural sultanas)^[1] Sixteenth-century texts also write soltam (1507) and soltão.^[2][3] Wiktionary lists the old spellings Soltão, Soltaõ, Sultaõ, Soltam and Sultam.^[4] Besides the plural sultões, Priberam and Michaelis accept sultães and sultãos, and the feminine is sultana.^[5][6][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Arabic سلطان (sulṭān, “rule, authority; ruler, prince”).^[2][3][7][8] Wiktionary instead takes it through French sultan and Turkish sultan, and traces the Arabic word to Aramaic שולטנא (šultānā, “strength, authority”).^[4] In French, the word replaced the medieval form in 1520, borrowed again through Turkish for the Ottoman rulers.^[9]

An older borrowing of the same Arabic word is soldão, written Old Galician-Portuguese soldan in the 13th century, which is parallel to Spanish soldán and Old French souldan, all taken from Arabic at the time of the Crusades.^[3][10][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The account of Pedro Álvares Cabral's voyage of 1500 speaks of the great provinces and kingdoms subject to the Grão Sultão de Babilónia.^[11][2] Two years earlier the Roteiro of Vasco da Gama's voyage has the form colyytam.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

The older soldan appears in the Cantigas de Santa Maria for a Moorish ruler (aquel mouro Soldan) and in a chronicle of 1344 (o grande ssoldom de Perssya).^[12][13] With the voyages to the East the form sultão took over, and the chroniclers of India used it in particular for the kings of Cambay.^[11] The Portuguese translation of Pyrard de Laval explains that only five Muslim kings had the right to call themselves Soltão: the Turk, the Persian, the Mogul, the king of the Maldives and the king of Aceh.^[11]

The main sense came to be the title of the Ottoman emperor, then of other Muslim and Tatar princes.^[2] Figurative senses followed: an absolute or very powerful lord, and a man with many mistresses; both are already in the original Caldas Aulete.^[2][14] In Brazil, Sultão das Matas is a name of Oxóssi in the candomblé de caboclo.^[15][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – the older form soldan in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[10][12]
• 1344 – ssoldom in a chronicle.^[12]
• 1498 – colyytam in the Roteiro of Vasco da Gama's voyage.^[10][11]
• 1500 – first record of sultão.^[2][3]
• 1507 – the spelling soltam.^[2]
• 1520 – French takes up sultan through Turkish.^[9]
• 1563 – João de Barros writes that the Moors call their king Sultão, a word the Portuguese corrupted into Soldão.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) The title of the emperor of Turkey; the same as soldão.^[2][15][8]
2. The title of certain Muslim and Tatar princes; the sovereign of a sultanate.^[2][15][5]
3. (figurative) An absolute or very powerful lord, a despot.^[2][15][5]
4. (figurative) A man who has many mistresses; the same as paxá.^[2][15][8]

Word family

• sultana
• sultanato

Related words

• soldão
• Arabic سلطان (sulṭān)
• Spanish sultán

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sultão
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sultão
4. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. sultão
5. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. sultão
6. ^ 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. sultão
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sultão
8. ^ 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. sultão
9. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. sultan
10. ^ a b c d Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. soldão
11. ^ a b c d e f Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 2, 325
12. ^ 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. soldan
13. ^ 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. soldan
14. ^ 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. sultão
15. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sultão