tio

Forms

tio m (plural tios, feminine tia, feminine plural tias)^[1] The feminine is tia.^[1][2] Houaiss records the spellings tijo and tyo in the 14th century, and Wiktionary the pre-reform spelling thio.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin thīus (“uncle”), written Old Galician-Portuguese tio in the oldest texts; the feminine tia is thīa (“aunt”).^[3][2][1] The Late Latin word is from Ancient Greek θεῖος (theîos, “uncle, brother of one's father or mother”).^[3][4][1] Isidore of Seville already calls it a Greek word, and the feminine is recorded from the 6th century.^[5][6]

Classical Latin named each of these relations separately: patruus (“father's brother”) and amita (“father's sister”), avunculus (“mother's brother”) and matertera (“mother's sister”).^[3] The pair taken from Greek replaced them in Ibero-Romance and Italian, while French oncle and tante continue the Latin words.^[3][4] The same Late Latin word is Galician tío, Spanish tío, Catalan tio and Italian zio, and in Italy the word spread gradually from the south.^[7][1]

Beekes considers the Greek word onomatopoeic, a nursery word with a suffix, and compares the reduplicated τήθη (tḗthē, “grandmother”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters from Galicia and Portugal use the word long before the vernacular texts: domnus S. tius meus “my uncle Lord S.” in 842, and tia nostra “our aunt” in 952.^[6] In Galician-Portuguese it is recorded from the 13th century in the sense “brother of one's father or mother”.^[3][2] A cantiga says ca atal era outr'amor de meu tio “for such was another love of my uncle's”, and the Crónica Troiana tells of two kings que eran tio et sobriño “who were uncle and nephew”.^[9][6]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 still has to give the Latin words for each kind of uncle, patruus for the father's brother and avunculus for the mother's, and Bluteau in 1712 derives tio from Greek.^[10][11] The sense “husband of one's aunt” is an extension of the first.^[3]

As a form of address the word spread to people who are not relatives: in rural Portugal to any older man, or to a man whose name is not known, and in Brazil to the friends of one's parents and, among children, to any adult.^[12][13][3] In southern Brazil it was once a name for an old Black man, and in Brazilian seamen's usage it means the captain of a ship.^[3][14] In colloquial European Portuguese a tio is also an affected person of the upper classes.^[15][1]

The word passed into Kabuverdianu and Guinea-Bissau Creole as tiu, and into Saramaccan as tio.^[1]

Timeline

• 842 – tius meus in a Latin charter.^[6]
• 952 – tia nostra in a Latin charter.^[6]
• 13th century – first record in Galician-Portuguese.^[3][2]
• 14th century – the spellings tijo and tyo.^[3]
• c. 1433 – tio in the Vita Christi.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists tio, irmão do pay and tio da parte da may.^[10]
• 1712 – Bluteau derives the word from Greek.^[11]
• 1899 – first record of titio, in Figueiredo's dictionary.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. An uncle, the brother of one's father or mother.^[3][18][1]
2. By extension, the husband of one's aunt (tia).^[3][18]
3. (Brazil) An affectionate form of address used by young people for the friends of their parents or the parents of their friends.^[3][18]
4. (north-eastern Brazil) A form of address used by children for adults, especially those of higher standing.^[3]
5. (Portugal, chiefly rural) A form of address for an older man, or for a man whose name one does not know.^[13][12]
6. (Brazil, colloquial) A guy; an informal form of address for any man.^[1]
7. (Portugal, colloquial) A person of the upper classes with affected manners.^[15][19][1]
8. (Brazil, nautical) The captain of a ship.^[3]

Word family

• titio
• tiozinho
• tiozão

Related words

• tia
• Late Latin thīus
• Galician tío

Usage notes

In Portugal ficar para tio “to stay an uncle” means to remain unmarried.^[13][19]

Houaiss and Aurélio also record a separate adjective and noun tio in ethnology, another name for the Anzico people of Central Africa;^[3][18] Houaiss calls its origin obscure.^[3][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 Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tio
3. ^ 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. tio
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tio
5. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. thius
6. ^ 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. tio
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8709
8. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. θεῖος
9. ^ 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. tio
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tio
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. tio
12. ^ 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. tio
13. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. tio
14. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. tio
15. ^ 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. tio
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tio
17. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. titio
18. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tio
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8984