tamanho

Forms

tamanho (feminine tamanha, masculine plural tamanhos, feminine plural tamanhas)^[1] Medieval texts write tamanna (13th century), tamanho, tamãha and atamaño (14th century).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tam magnus (“so big”), the adverb tam (“so, so much”) joined to the adjective magnus (“great”), written Old Galician-Portuguese tamanno in the oldest texts.^[2][1][3] The glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda still explains it by the Latin phrase.^[4]

The same phrase gave Spanish tamaño, recorded in charters of 1071 and 1090 and long written separately in Old Spanish.^[5] Other Romance languages kept only the adverb (Spanish tan, Catalan tan), which is also tão.^[6][7]

The Latin adverb goes back to *tām, from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂m.^[8] The adjective is from *magnos, from *m̥ǵh₂nós, a derivative of *méǵh₂s (“great”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the adjective to the 13th century, in the form tamanna.^[2] In the satirical cantigas it means “as big, so great”: Afonso X writes A Maior Moniz dei já outra tamanha “to Maior Moniz I have already given another as big”, and another poet has dous tamanho pesar “twice as much grief”.^[4] A cantiga d'amor has ca tamanho pesar mi fezestes / que jurei de vos nunca fazer ben “for you caused me such grief that I swore never to do you good”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word was an adjective of degree, used in comparisons with como and que.^[9] Cardoso (1569) renders it with Latin tantus, and Morais (1789) still defines it only as “so big”.^[10][11] Houaiss dates the noun “size” to the 15th century.^[2] Bluteau (1712–1728) gives o tamanho do corpo “the size of the body” and do tamanho do dedo “as big as a finger”, and explains the word from Latin tam and magnus.^[12] In Spanish, by contrast, the noun only appears in 1633.^[13]

Nascentes notes that popular speech took it as a superlative, “very big”.^[3] Modern senses include build or stature, and the standard sizes of clothes and shoes.^[2] The word passed into Tetum as tamañu.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, as tamanna.^[2]
• 13th century – tamanha in a satirical cantiga by Afonso X.^[4]
• 15th century – first date Houaiss gives for the noun “size”.^[2]
• 1438 – tamanho in the Vida de uma santa monja (copy 1431–1446).^[14]
• 1500 – tamanho in a letter.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin tantus.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau has o tamanho do corpo and derives the word from tam and magnus.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais: “so big”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. So great, so large or so intense: Nunca vi tamanha confusão.^[2][16][1]
2. So distinguished or remarkable.^[2][17]
3. Big, tall, huge.^[2][18][1]
4. So violent or strong.^[2]

Noun

1. size: physical extent, volume or area: Qual é o tamanho do quarto?^[2][17][1]
2. Build, stature.^[2][17]
3. (clothing) Each of the standard sizes of clothes and shoes.^[2][17]

Related words

• tão
• magno
• Latin tam
• Spanish tamaño

Usage notes

Do tamanho de um bonde “the size of a tram” is a Brazilian informal phrase for something or someone very big.^[2][18] Em tamanho natural means life-size.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. tamanho
3. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tamanho
4. ^ 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. tamanho
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 394
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. tam
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. tam
8. ^ 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 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. tamanho
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tamanho
11. ^ 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, 442
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. tamanho
13. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tamaño
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tamanho
15. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. tamanho
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8800
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. tamanho
18. ^ 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. tamanho