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velho

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word velho

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s spelt uelhos More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin veclus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *wétos

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈvɛ.ʎu/[1]
  • Portugal: /ˈvɛ.ʎu/[1]
  • Northern, Portugal: /ˈbɛ.ʎu/[1]
  • /ˈvɛ.ju/[1]

Forms

velho (feminine velha, masculine plural velhos, feminine plural velhas, comparable, comparative mais velho, superlative o mais velho or velhíssimo, diminutive velhinho, augmentative velhão)[1] As a noun: velho m (plural velhos, feminine velha).[1] Houaiss records uelio (1162), uelhos (13th century), vellos and velho (14th century).[2] Informal Brazilian speech has véio and véi.[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin veclus, the popular form of Latin vetulus (“elderly, ageing”), written Old Galician-Portuguese velho in the oldest texts.[1][2][3] The Latin word is a diminutive of vetus (“old”); in popular Latin the diminutive lost its diminutive sense and took the place of the simple adjective itself, and it also displaced senex (“old man”).[2][3][4] Nascentes explains that the syncopated ⟨tl⟩ of ⟨*vetlu⟩, rare in Latin, was pronounced ⟨cl⟩, and cites the Appendix Probi, which corrects ⟨veclus⟩ to ⟨vetulus⟩; he compares rolha and selha for the change of the group to ⟨lh⟩.[5][6]

The same Latin word is Galician vello, Spanish viejo, Catalan vell, Occitan vièlh, French vieux, Italian vecchio and Romanian vechi.[7][1]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *wetos (“year”), from Proto-Indo-European *wétos (“year”): a thing “of many years” is old.[1][8] The same root gave Ancient Greek ἔτος (étos, “year”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1162, in the spelling uelio, after Machado.[2] The cantigas use it of people and things: a satirical cantiga mocks a cloak that is worth nothing at court, a capa velh' “the old cloak”, and another speaks of dinheiros velhos, coins of earlier reigns as against newly minted money.[9] As a noun it already means “old man”: Aqui estades, ai velho de matreira “Here you are, you crafty old man”.[9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval senses were already those of today: “aged”, “ancient” and “worn out by time or use”.[9][10] Bluteau (1712) puts old age after manhood and notes that a man is old at sixty, a horse at twenty.[11] Morais (1789) lists contos de velha “old wives' tales”, soldado velho “veteran soldier”, lua velha “waning moon” and the religious phrase despir o homem velho “to put off the old man”.[12]

Brazilian family speech made o meu velho “my father” and os velhos “my parents”, and young Brazilians use velho as a form of address between men.[6][2][1] In the north of Portugal velho is also a popular dance and song, and the word names a small bird whose male is black with a white head.[13][2][13] As a surname, Velho was first a nickname.[14] The word passed into Kabuverdianu as bedju.[1]

Timeline

  • 1162 – Houaiss's first date, after Machado, for the spelling uelio.[2]
  • 13th century – uelhos.[2]
  • 14th century – vellos and velho.[2]
  • c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (witness of 1390–1437) uses the word.[15]
  • 1520 – a private letter has velho and velhos.[16]
  • 1569 – Cardoso renders velho with Latin senex.[17]
  • 1657 – first record of velhustro “old fellow”.[10]
  • 1712 – Bluteau defines the old age of men and of horses.[11]
  • 1789 – Morais lists contos de velha, soldado velho and lua velha.[12]
  • 1813 – first record of velhada.[10]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. old, not young; having lived or existed for a long time: O cão já está velho.[2][6][1]
  2. Dating from long ago; ancient (antigo): uma velha tradição.[2][6]
  3. Of long standing in a role, profession or relationship: um velho amigo.[2][18]
  4. Worn out by use: sapatos velhos.[2][6][1]
  5. Out of date, old-fashioned (antiquado), obsolete.[2][6][1]
  6. (mais velho) Older, elder: o irmão mais velho.[2]

Noun

  1. An old man;[2][6][1] (sometimes offensive) an old person.[2][6][1]
  2. (informal) father;[2][6][1] (in the plural) parents.[2][6][1]
  3. (informal) Husband, especially an elderly one.[1]
  4. (Brazil, slang) A form of address between men, of any age.[1]
  5. A popular dance and song of northern Portugal.[2]
  6. (ornithology) A small bird, Arundinicola leucocephala, whose male is black with a white head.[2][13]

Word family

  • velhice
  • velhote
  • velhinho
  • velhão
  • velhada
  • velharia
  • velhusco
  • envelhecer
  • envelhecido
  • envelhecimento
  • avelhantado
  • ferro-velho
  • lata-velha

Usage notes

The phrases velho e relho and velho como a Sé de Braga mean “very old”.[13][2] Velho Testamento is another name for the Antigo Testamento, the Old Testament.[1][19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. velho
  3. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. velho
  4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 805
  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. 521
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. velho
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9291
  8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c 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. velho
  10. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. velho
  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. velho
  12. ^ 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. s.v. velho
  13. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9421
  14. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. velho
  15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. velho
  16. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. velho
  17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. velho
  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. velho
  19. ^ 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. velho

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Velho.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/velho. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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