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vão

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word vão

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin vanus
Ultimate origin
Latin vanus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin vānus
English vain
French vain
Italian vano
Portuguese vão
Spanish vano
From the same root
Latin vānēscō ← vānus
Latin vānitās ← vānus
Italian vanire ← vano
Spanish vanagloria ← vano

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈvɐ̃w̃/, [ˈvɐ̃ʊ̯̃][1]
  • Portugal: /ˈvɐ̃w̃/[1]
  • Northern, Portugal: /ˈbɐ̃w̃/[1]

Forms

vão (feminine vã, masculine plural vãos, feminine plural vãs)[1] Houaiss records vão and the feminine vã in the 13th century, and vãã, vaao and em vãão in the 14th.[2][3] The Old Galician-Portuguese feminine was vãa.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vānus (“empty, hollow; idle, false”), written Old Galician-Portuguese vão in the oldest texts.[2][3][5][1] The noun, meaning an empty space or gap, is the same word, recorded in the 13th century like the adjective; the DLP takes it from the Latin neuter vānum.[2][3][6]

The same Latin word is Galician van, Spanish vano, Catalan va, French vain and Italian vano.[7][1] The Spanish word is also a noun for the opening of a door.[8]

De Vaan reconstructs *wānos or *wāsnos, from a root that also gave Sanskrit ऊन (ūná, “deficient”).[9] If the Latin word belongs with vāstus (“empty, desolate”), the second reconstruction is the right one.[9] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty, leave”), and names Proto-Germanic *wanaz as a cognate.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the cantigas the word is found almost only in the phrase em vão “in vain, without reason”: a cantiga d'amigo has mais, por non chegar en vão, / demos-lhi nós ũa maia “but so that he does not come in vain, let us give him a maia”.[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The Latin senses “empty”, “unfounded” and “useless” all continued in Portuguese, and the adjective also took the moral sense “conceited”: Pereira (1697) pairs vão with soberbo “proud”.[2][13] Compounds and derivatives appeared early: vanglória, from vã glória joined into one word, is recorded in the 14th century, and desvão “loft” in the 15th.[3]

The noun developed technical senses: an opening in a wall for a door or window, the space between pillars or arches, and in engineering the distance between the supports of a bridge or beam (vão livre, 1967).[2][6] In Brazil it names a deep valley in Goiás, a steep escarpment in Piauí, an open upland, and informally the area of the collarbone.[2][14][15]

Timeline

  • 13th century – first records of the adjective and the noun.[2][3]
  • 14th century – em vão and the spellings vãã, vaao;[2][3] vanglória spelt uããgloria.[2][3]
  • 15th century – desvão, spelt desuaos.[3]
  • 1513 – vão in the Livro dos Mártires.[16]
  • 1697 – Pereira glosses vão as “proud”.[13]
  • 1844 – vangloriar and vanglorioso.[3]
  • 1967 – the engineering terms vão livre and vão teórico.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. empty, hollow, lacking content.[2][6][1]
  2. Without foundation in reality; illusory, false.[2][6]
  3. Ineffective, useless, fruitless.[2][15][1]
  4. Of no real value or importance; futile, trivial.[2][17]
  5. Based on appearances or lies; deceptive, feigned.[2][18]
  6. vain, conceited, self-important.[2][6][1]

Noun

  1. An empty space between two occupied ones; a gap.[2][1]
  2. (figurative) A real or mental void.[2]
  3. (architecture) An opening in a wall for a door or window, or for light and air; the set of shutters or curtains of such an opening.[2][6][1]
  4. (architecture) The open space between pillars or arches;[2][1] vão de escada, the space under a flight of stairs.[2][1]
  5. (engineering) The span, the distance between consecutive supports of a structure such as a bridge.[2][6]
  6. (nautical) The space between two consecutive frames of a ship's hull.[2]
  7. (Brazil, regional) A deep valley, a steep escarpment, or an open upland.[2][14][6]
  8. (Brazil, informal) The area of the collarbone.[2][15]

Word family

  • desvanecer
  • devanear
  • esvanecer
  • vaidade
  • vaniloquência
  • vaniloquente
  • vanilóquio
  • vaníloquo
  • Latin vanus
  • Galician van
  • Spanish vano

Usage notes

The phrase em vão means “in vain, to no purpose” and also “without reason”: tomar o nome de Deus em vão “to take God's name in vain”.[2][19] Vão is also the third person plural of the present of ir (eles vão), a verb form of a different origin.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 s t u v w x y z Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vão
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vão
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. vão
  5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vão
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. vão
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9145
  8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 738
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. vanus
  11. ^ 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. vão
  12. ^ 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. vão
  13. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vão
  14. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. vão
  15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. vão
  16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vão
  17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vão
  18. ^ 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. vão
  19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9382
  20. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. vão

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Vão.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/v%C3%A3o. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·