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varanda

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word varanda

Confidence
Disputed
First attested
1498 More words from the 15th century
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Portuguese varanda
Spanish baranda

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /vaˈɾɐ̃.dɐ/[1]
  • Portugal: /vɐˈɾɐ̃.dɐ/[1]
  • Northern, Portugal: /bɐˈɾɐ̃.dɐ/[1]

Forms

varanda f (plural varandas)[1] The form baranda was also used: Feijó (1734) found varanda the commoner spelling, and Vieira (1871–1874) calls baranda little used.[2][3] Northern Portugal pronounces the word with /b/.[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed: Houaiss and Nascentes call it controversial, Cunha uncertain, and the DLP obscure.[4][5][6][7]

The word existed in the Iberian Peninsula before the Portuguese reached India: Spanish baranda is recorded from about 1460 and Catalan barana from 1082, and Occitan has it too.[8][9] Gonçalves Viana, quoted by Nascentes, therefore connected it with varão and with the native word for a pole, which comes from Latin vāra (“forked pole, trestle”), and Picoche too takes it from the Latin word.[10][11][1] Corominas thinks it a pre-Roman Indo-European word, akin to Sanskrit वरण्ड (varaṇḍa, “barrier, partition wall”);[9][11] Houaiss quotes him as deriving it from a Celtic diminutive meaning “small boundary”.[9][11]

Others have taken the Portuguese word from India: Meyer-Lübke and Lokotsch derived it from Sanskrit, and Aurélio from a Hindi word for a balustrade.[10][12] Dalgado rejected an Asian origin, arguing that the word is not found in any Sanskrit or Prakrit text before the 16th century.[10] Gonçalves Viana adds that Gil Vicente already uses it in a phrase that sounds like an old proverb, which a recent Asian loan could not be.[10] Wiktionary leaves the question open and notes the suggestion that the architectural sense of the Indian words came from Portuguese.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha put the first record in the 15th century,[4][6] and Wiktionary dates it to 1498.[1] Nascentes, following Gonçalves Viana, notes that it appears in the Roteiro of Vasco da Gama's voyage without explanation, as a word every reader knew.[10] The sense is an open gallery or balcony on a building.[4]

Semantic evolution

Gil Vicente's Farsa do Juiz da Beira has the comic simile como gato na varanda “like a cat on the balcony”.[10] Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) render the word with the Latin maenianum “balcony”.[13][14] Morais (1789) describes a projecting structure with railings or balusters where one takes the sun or the cool air, and also records varanda for the toothed wheel of an olive press.[15]

In Brazil it became the porch running along the front or round a country house, and in the north and south the front room or the dining room.[4][12][16] Other senses are the gallery above the boxes in a theatre, the stern gallery of large ships and the fringe along the sides of a hammock.[4][17][7]

English veranda (1711) is an Anglo-Indian word taken through Hindi, probably from the Portuguese one.[18] The Portuguese word also passed into Indonesian beranda and Kabuverdianu varanda.[18][1]

Timeline

  • 1498 – first record.[1]
  • 1569 – Cardoso lists varanda.[13]
  • 1611 – Barbosa lists varanda.[14]
  • 1734 – Feijó weighs varanda against baranda.[2]
  • 1789 – Morais records the sense “toothed wheel of an olive press”.[15]
  • 1899 – the fringe of a hammock.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An open gallery or roofed space along a building; a veranda or terrace.[4][1]
  2. (Brazil) A porch at the front of or round a house, especially a country house.[4][12]
  3. A balcony.[4][12]
  4. (northern Brazil) The front room of a house;[4][16] (Amazonia, Rio Grande do Sul) the dining room.[4][16]
  5. (Minho) A room beside the house where servants and guests sleep.[4][7]
  6. (Brazil) The lace or fringe along the sides of a hammock.[4]
  7. (Portugal) The toothed wheel of an olive press.[4][12]
  8. (nautical) A gallery at the stern of large ships.[4][7]
  9. (theatre) The gallery above the stage where the stagehands work the scenery; also the highest gallery above the boxes.[4][17]

Word family

  • avarandado
  • varandim

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. varanda
  3. ^ 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, 879
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. varanda
  5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. varanda
  6. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. varanda
  7. ^ a b c d 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. varanda
  8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. baranda
  9. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 497
  10. ^ a b c d e f Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 519
  11. ^ a b c Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. varand-
  12. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. varanda
  13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. varanda
  14. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. varanda
  15. ^ 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, 509
  16. ^ a b c Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. varanda
  17. ^ 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. varanda
  18. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. veranda
Cite this entry

“Varanda.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/varanda. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·