vazio

Forms

vazio (feminine vazia, masculine plural vazios, feminine plural vazias, comparable, comparative mais vazio, superlative o mais vazio or vaziíssimo)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote uazia (13th century), vaziio and vazyo (14th century).^[2] The spelling vasio (1667) was common until the 18th century: Bluteau heads the word vasîo, ou vazio, and Morais (1813) calls vazio the better spelling.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vacīvus (“unoccupied, vacant, free”), written Old Galician-Portuguese vazio in the oldest texts.^[2][5][6][1] Nascentes notes that the Latin consonant /w/ was lost before the vowel /u/, citing Meyer-Lübke.^[7]

The same Latin word is Galician vacío and Spanish vacío.^[1][8][9] Corominas dates the Spanish word to about 1140 and takes it from the Vulgar Latin word, which replaced classical Latin vacuus.^[1][8][9] The REW lists many Italian, Occitan and Catalan dialect words for ewes or cows that are not with young, and the Portuguese regional senses belong with them.^[9]

The Latin adjective is formed from vacō (“to be empty”) with -īvus, and the OLD notes that it was superseded by that classical word.^[10][1] De Vaan traces the family to an adjective Proto-Italic *wako- (“empty”) and, further, to Proto-Indo-European *h₁uh₂-ko-.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is from the 13th century in a cancioneiro.^[2] In a cantiga d'escarnho Afons' Eanes do Coton has mão vazia “empty hand”, that is, “without money, empty-handed”.^[12][13] The Historia Troiana uses the adjective of a town emptied of people: depoys que a vila for vazia “after the town is empty”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines the word as “empty, unoccupied” and also as “vain, not solid, airy”, as in nomes vasios “empty names”.^[3] Houaiss dates the noun “empty space, vacuum” to 1664.^[2] Vieira (1871–1874) records phrases such as de vazio “without load or rider”.^[14]

Figurative senses, “frivolous, futile” and “lacking ideas”, are in the modern dictionaries, as is the noun for a feeling of loss or emptiness.^[2][15][16] In the plural, vazios are the flanks of an animal, and in Rio Grande do Sul vazio is a cut of beef from the flank, as in Plate Spanish vacío.^[2][17] Regional Portuguese uses it for a young castrated ram (Trás-os-Montes) and for cattle that give no milk (Beira).^[2][18][16]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, spelt uazia, in a cancioneiro.^[2][5]
• 14th century – the spellings vaziio and vazyo.^[2]
• c. 1430 – used in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[19]
• 1664 – first record of the noun “empty space”.^[2]
• 1667 – the spelling vasio.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau heads the word vasîo, ou vazio.^[3]
• 1813 – Morais prefers vazio to vasio.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. empty, containing nothing or only air: um frasco vazio.^[2][15][1]
2. With few or no occupants; deserted, uninhabited: a praia estava vazia.^[2][15]
3. Lacking something (de): um olhar vazio de expressão.^[2][16]
4. (figurative) Without basis or substance; hollow, vain: promessas vazias.^[2][1]
5. (figurative) frivolous, shallow, futile.^[2][15]
6. (figurative) Ineffective, useless.^[2]
7. (mathematics) Of a set: having no elements.^[2]

Noun

1. An empty space; a vacuum.^[2][15][1]
2. An unfilled gap or space within something.^[2]
3. (figurative) A feeling of loss or emptiness.^[2][16][1]
4. (in the plural) The flanks of an animal.^[2][1]
5. (Rio Grande do Sul) flank steak.^[17][1]
6. (Trás-os-Montes) A young castrated ram;^[2][16] (Beira) cattle that give no milk.^[2][16]

Word family

• esvaziar
• esvaziamento
• vazar
• vazante
• vazão
• vazamento

Related words

• vácuo
• vagar
• vago
• Latin vacīvus
• Spanish vacío

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 e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vazio
3. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vasio
4. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 835
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vazio
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vazio
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 521
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vacío
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9113
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. vacīvus
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b 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. vazio
13. ^ 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. vazio
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, 887
15. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vazio
16. ^ a b c d e f 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. vazio
17. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. vazio
18. ^ 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. vazio
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vazio