tanto

Forms

tanto (feminine tanta, masculine plural tantos, feminine plural tantas)^[1] Medieval texts also write tãto, tant' before a vowel, and the longer atanto.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tantus (“so great”), written Old Galician-Portuguese tanto in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Already in Vulgar Latin it was also used for “so many”, and it took the place of tot (“so many”).^[4][5]

The same Latin word is Galician tanto, Spanish tanto, Catalan tant, French tant and Italian tanto.^[6][1]

The Latin adjective is formed from tam (“so”), like quantus beside quam.^[7][1] De Vaan reconstructs *tānto- and thinks it probably continues an inherited type of adjectives with the suffix *-nt- built on pronoun stems.^[8][8]

The adverb tão may come directly from the Latin adverb or be a shortened form of this word before the word it qualifies: Cunha gives both possibilities, and Corominas leaves the question open for Spanish tan.^[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the adverb and the pronoun to the 13th century.^[2][3] In the cantigas the word is already an adjective “so great, such”, the correlative of quanto, an adverb “so hard”, and a noun in tẽer en tanto “to hold in such esteem”;^[10] mil tanto means “a thousand times as much”.^[10] The Crónica Troiana speaks of men so many (tantos) that they could enter the land.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) glosses the adjective as “so great” and explains how it is put into Latin.^[11] Folqman (1755) records outro tanto “as much again”.^[12] Houaiss dates tanto melhor “so much the better” to the 14th century.^[2]

The noun came to mean an indeterminate amount and “times” in comparisons (três tantos “three times as much”), and in the plural it stands for a number that is not given (trinta e tantos “thirty-odd”).^[2][4] In Portuguese dialects tanto is also used for tão before an adjective.^[13]

Timeline

• 13th century – tanto and atanto, as adverb and pronoun.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the Trasladação de S. Nicolau (witness of 1301–1400) uses the word;^[14][2] Houaiss dates tanto melhor to this century.^[14][2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau's dictionary treats it at length.^[11]
• 1755 – Folqman lists outro tanto.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais defines tanto as “so great” and records em tanto que.^[15]
• 1899 – first record of contanto que “provided that”.^[3]

Meanings

Determiner

1. So much, so great;^[2][16][1] (plural) so many: Nunca vi tanta gente junta.^[2][16][1]
2. (plural, after a number) And some more, -odd: quarenta e tantos anos.^[2][17]

Pronoun

1. So much, so many things; such an amount.^[2][1]
2. (plural) Stands for a number or item the speaker does not give: a páginas tantas.^[2][18]

Adverb

1. So much, so often, for so long: Trabalhou tanto que adoeceu.^[2][1]
2. To such a degree, so hard; in comparisons tanto … quanto “as much … as”.^[2][19][1]

Noun

1. An unspecified amount or sum.^[2][1]
2. An equal amount; with a number, so many times as much: dois tantos.^[2][4]

Word family

• portanto
• contanto

Related words

• tão
• tampouco
• quanto
• Latin tantus
• Galician tanto

Usage notes

Common phrases are tanto melhor “so much the better”, tanto faz (it makes no difference), um tanto ou quanto “somewhat” and tanto quanto “as much as”.^[2][18]

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 f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tanto
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tanto
4. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tanto
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 485
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8562
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. tantus
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 407
10. ^ 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. tanto
11. ^ 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. tanto
12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tanto
13. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. tanto
14. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tanto
15. ^ 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, 444
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. tanto
17. ^ 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. tanto
18. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8816
19. ^ 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. tanto