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treze

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word treze

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1214 testament of Afonso II More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin tredecim
Ultimate origin
Latin trēdecim
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin trēs
Aromanian trei
French trois
Italian tre
Portuguese três
Romanian trei
Spanish tres
Latin trēdecim
French treize
Italian tredici
Portuguese treze
Spanish trece
From the same root
Latin triens ← trēs
Latin trīnus ← trēs
Latin triplex ← trēs
Latin triumvir ← trēs
French troisième ← trois
Romanian treizeci ← trei

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈtɾe.zi/[1]
  • Portugal: /ˈtɾe.zɨ/[1]
  • /ˈtrɐz/[1]

Forms

treze m or f[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin trēdecim (“thirteen”), written Old Galician-Portuguese treze in the oldest texts.[2][3][1] Nascentes traces it through the stages *tredce and *trece.[4]

The same Latin word gave Galician trece, Spanish trece, Catalan tretze, French treize and Italian tredici.[5][6][1]

The Latin numeral is a compound of trēs (“three”) and decem (“ten”).[2][1] De Vaan traces the first part to Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The testament of Afonso II of 1214 mentions treze cartas “thirteen documents”; a charter of 1275 has mill e CCC et treçe ãnos.[8] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it in a date, a treze dias “on the thirteenth day”.[8]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) also uses it for the ordinal, and Houaiss and Aurélio list “thirteenth” in a series, as in a chapter or a day of the month.[9][2][10] Morais (1813) records the phrase estar nos seus treze “to stick to one's opinion”, which Vieira and the old Caldas Aulete repeat.[11][12][13] In colloquial Brazilian Portuguese it is also an invariable adjective for a reckless, rude or foolish person, and a regional survey records it as a word for a drunkard.[1][14]

Timeline

  • 1214 – treze cartas in the testament of Afonso II.[8]
  • 1275 – treçe in a charter, in a date.[8]
  • 13th century – a treze dias in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[8][2]
  • 1611 – Barbosa gives Latin tredecim for the numeral and tredecimus for the ordinal.[9]
  • 1813 – Morais records estar nos seus treze.[11]

Meanings

Numeral

  1. thirteen; twelve plus one: Passou treze anos fora de casa.[2][10][1]
  2. (after a noun) thirteenth in a series: o capítulo treze.[2][10]

Noun

  1. The number 13, and the figure that represents it.[10][15]
  2. The thirteenth day of a month.[16]

Adjective

  1. (Brazil, colloquial) Of a person, reckless or crazy; also rude, inconsiderate or foolish.[1]

Usage notes

The old phrase estar nos seus treze meant to persist stubbornly in one's opinion.[12][13]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. treze
  3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. três
  4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. treze
  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. 505
  6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. tredecim
  7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ 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. treze
  9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. treze
  10. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. treze
  11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 808
  12. ^ a b 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, 814
  13. ^ 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. treze
  14. ^ 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. treze
  15. ^ 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. treze
  16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. treze

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Treze.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/treze. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·