tarde

Forms

tarde^[1] As a noun it is feminine, plural tardes.^[1] Some cantigas have the form tardi.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tardē (“slowly; late”), written Old Galician-Portuguese tarde in the oldest texts.^[4][5][1] The Latin adverb is formed from tardus (“slow”) with the adverb ending -ē.^[6][1]

The adverb became a noun for the afternoon, as in Spanish, without ceasing to be an adverb.^[7] Houaiss explains the noun as the part of the day in which time seems to pass slowly.^[4] The REW records the sense “evening” in Spanish and Portuguese and in Old Italian.^[8]

The same Latin word is Galician tarde, Spanish tarde, Catalan tard, Occitan tard, French tard and Italian tardi.^[8][1] The Catalan noun tarda (“afternoon”) was taken from Spanish.^[8] English tardy is related.^[1]

De Vaan finds no etymology for the Latin adjective and rejects an older comparison with Greek and Sanskrit words.^[9] Wiktionary connects it with Proto-Indo-European *terh₂- (“to cross over”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha and Houaiss date both the adverb and the noun to the 13th century.^[5][4] Lorenzo's first record is the noun in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, mas aa tarde ll'en mente vẽo “but in the afternoon it came to her mind”, and the same cantiga has the adverb in foi ja tard'aa eigreja “went late to church”.^[2] King Denis wrote tard'ou toste “late or soon”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The adverb has kept its sense “late, after the proper time”, while the noun a tarde named the time between noon and nightfall.^[4][2] Cardoso (1569) gives only the adverb, glossed sero, and Barbosa (1611) has aa tarde “in the evening” beside it.^[10][11] Bluteau (1712) defines the noun as the part of the day from twelve o'clock to sunset.^[12]

A masculine noun o tarde survives in the phrase no tarde “late in the season”, and in Rio Grande do Sul o tarde is the late season of sowing, harvest and breeding.^[13][14][15] The diminutive tardinha “the end of the afternoon” is recorded from 1858.^[5]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria have aa tarde.^[2][5]
• c. 1400 – tarde in a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses the adverb with Latin sero.^[10]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists mais tarde, muyto tarde and aa tarde.^[11]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines a tarde as the time from noon to sunset.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais enters the noun with the same definition.^[17]
• 1858 – first record of tardinha.^[5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Late: after the proper, usual or agreed time.^[4][18][1]
2. Late in the day or at a late hour of the night.^[4][18][1]
3. Later on, at a later time.^[19]

Noun

1. The afternoon: the part of the day from noon to nightfall.^[4][18][1]
2. (masculine, in no tarde) Late in the season; out of season.^[13][14]

Word family

• tardinha

Related words

• tardança
• tardar
• tardiamente
• tardio
• tardo
• Latin tardus
• Galician tarde

Usage notes

Boa tarde (also boas tardes) is the greeting used from noon to nightfall.^[20][19] The phrase antes tarde do que nunca “better late than never” uses the adverb, and tarde e a más horas means far too late.^[4][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. tarde
3. ^ 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. tarde
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tarde
5. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tarde
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. tardē
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 486
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8573
9. ^ 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. tardus
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tarde
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tarde
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. tarde
13. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. tarde
14. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. tarde
15. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. tarde
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tarde
17. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 757
18. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tarde
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8829
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. tarde