verme

Forms

verme m (plural vermes)^[1] The medieval language wrote vermen and, in the plural, vermees and uermees, and vermes and ueerme appear in the 15th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

Houaiss and Cunha take it as inherited from Latin vermis (“worm, maggot”).^[2][3] The oldest texts write Old Galician-Portuguese vermen.^[2][3][1] That form, and the plural ⟨vermees⟩ with a nasal vowel, point to an n-stem by-form, *vermen, which the REW lists beside the Latin word.^[4] Wiktionary derives the Portuguese word from it.^[1] García de Diego preferred to start from Latin vermina, and Nascentes finds this confirmed by the old nasal spelling.^[5]

The same Latin word is Spanish verme, Catalan verm, French ver, Italian verme and Romanian vierme.^[4][1] García de Diego considers the Spanish word learned, against the popular Old Spanish bierme.^[6]

The Latin word goes back to *wormis, from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis (“worm”), and is cognate with Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌼𐍃 (waurms, “snake”) and Old English wyrm.^[1][7] De Vaan notes that other branches have a form beginning with ⟨kʷ-⟩, such as Sanskrit कृमि (kṛ́mi, “worm”), and that Latin and Germanic may have lost the first consonant.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates vermen and the plural vermees to the 13th century, as the name of worms and maggots.^[2] One of the Inéditos de Alcobaça says of a sinner Encheo-se-lhe todo o corpo de vermees “his whole body was filled with worms”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The old dictionaries treat the word as the name of grubs and maggots: Bluteau speaks of the creatures bred in wood, fruit and dead bodies, and Feijó (1734) calls verme a Latin word for bicho.^[8][9] Morais (1789) cites Azurara's prologue, seremos torpe vianda de vermes, depois de mortos “after death we will be foul meat for worms”.^[10]

Zoology made it a name for all soft-bodied, elongated invertebrates, and for a time the plural Vermes was a class of animals.^[2][11] The figurative sense “contemptible person” is in the modern dictionaries.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – vermen and vermees.^[2][3]
• 14th century – uermees, and Cunha's first date for the form verme.^[2][3]
• 15th century – vermes and ueerme.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the proverbial tirar a alguém o verme dos dentes.^[8]
• 1734 – Feijó calls verme and vermes Latin words.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as a grub bred in fruit, trees and animal bodies.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) A worm, any of the soft-bodied, elongated invertebrates without limbs.^[2][12][1]
2. An intestinal parasite, especially a roundworm.^[12][13][1]
3. (informal) The legless larva of an insect; a maggot.^[2][11]
4. (figurative) Something that slowly eats away at a person from within.^[11][14]
5. (figurative) A vile, contemptible person: Não confies naquele verme.^[2][15]

Related words

• vermículo
• vermicida
• vermiforme
• Latin vermis
• Spanish verme

Usage notes

Bluteau records the proverbial phrase tirar a alguém o verme dos dentes “to pull the worm out of someone's teeth”, that is, to get a secret out of him by cunning.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. verme
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. verme
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 523
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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. verme
9. ^ 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. verme
10. ^ 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, 520
11. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. verme
12. ^ a b c 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. verme
13. ^ 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. verme
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. verme
15. ^ 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. verme