terroso

Forms

terroso (feminine terrosa, masculine plural terrosos, feminine plural terrosas, metaphonic)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin terrōsus (“containing earth, loamy”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin adjective is formed from terra (“earth”) with the suffix -ōsus, and is rare in Latin, used by Vitruvius of sand and hills.^[5][6]

The same Latin word is Spanish terroso, Italian terroso, Catalan terrós and French terreux.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date is Morais's dictionary of 1789, which glosses it as “earthen” and gives the example concreções terrosas “earthy concretions”: a dictionary entry, not a dated text.^[2][8] Cunha dates it to the 1813 edition of Morais.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the mineralogical sense of Morais the word spread to colour and appearance: the old Caldas Aulete speaks of a cor terrosa in painting, a dull colour without transparency, and of earth-coloured cheeks.^[9] Hence the modern sense “dull, sallow”, said of skin.^[2][10] In older chemistry the metais terrosos were the metals of the aluminium group.^[11][12]

Timeline

• 1789 – Morais enters terroso as “earthen”.^[8]
• 1813 – the second edition of Morais repeats it.^[13][3]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira: earthen, full of earth.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. earthy: having the colour, appearance or nature of earth (terra), or mixed with earth: uma areia terrosa.^[2][9][1]
2. Dirty with earth.^[2][11]
3. (figurative) Dull, without lustre, sallow (baço): um rosto terroso.^[2][10]
4. (chemistry, dated) Of the metals of the aluminium group.^[12][11]

Related words

• terra
• térreo
• terreno
• Spanish terroso

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. terroso
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. terra
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. terroso
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. terrōsus
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. terrōsus
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8675
8. ^ 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, 455
9. ^ 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. terroso
10. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. terroso
11. ^ a b c 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. terroso
12. ^ a b 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. terroso
13. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 770
14. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 713