vermelho

Forms

vermelho (feminine vermelha, masculine plural vermelhos, feminine plural vermelhas, diminutive vermelhinho)^[1] Houaiss's oldest forms are vermello (13th century) and vermelhas (14th).^[2] Wiktionary also lists the variants vermeio and vremeio.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *vermiclus, from Latin vermiculus (“little worm; grub”), written Old Galician-Portuguese vermello in the oldest texts.^[2][1][3] The Latin noun is a diminutive of vermis (“worm”).^[2][4][5] Late Latin used the noun for the kermes or cochineal insect, from which a scarlet dye was made, and then for the colour itself: the noun appears as a colour adjective in Isidore and, according to Corominas, in a Galician document of 911.^[6][3][7] Nascentes notes that the sense “scarlet” is already found in Jerome, and Medieval Latin had vermiculum for red dye or red-dyed wool.^[8][9][10] Vieira's derivation from the French adjective is not followed by the later dictionaries.^[11]

The same Latin word is Galician vermello, Spanish bermejo, Asturian bermeyu, Catalan vermell, Occitan vermelh, French vermeil and Italian vermiglio, the Italian word being borrowed from Occitan.^[12][1][13] Corominas notes that the word has stayed more alive in Portuguese and Catalan than in Spanish.^[14] The learned doublet is vermículo.^[2][1]

The word for “worm” goes back to *wormis and *wr̥mis (“worm, snake”), with Germanic cognates such as 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌼𐍃 (waurms, “snake”) and wurm.^[15][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The 13th-century cantigas use the word for the colour of a person's face: the Cancioneiro da Ajuda has it for rosy cheeks, and a cantiga d'escarnho lists a garment that will be “neither black nor grey, nor white nor red nor brown” (nen branca nen vermelha nen castanha).^[16][17]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) treats vermelho as a compound colour and distinguishes a red tending to blue (purple, crimson), one tending to yellow (fire, orange) and red proper, the deepest being that of blood.^[18] Morais (1813) defines it by the colour of a face flushed with shame.^[19] Besides the colour, the adjective came to mean “flushed, blushing” and “bloodshot”, and of wine “young”.^[2]

Silva Bastos (1912) already gives the popular sense “revolutionary, Jacobin”, and today the word means “communist, left-wing”, and, of the former Soviet Union, exército vermelho.^[20][2][21] In Brazil a song or joke that is vermelha is obscene.^[22][23] As a noun it names the colour, a varnish of resin, dragon's blood and alcohol, and in Brazil several red fishes of the snapper family.^[2][20] The word passed into the Portuguese creoles as Guinea-Bissau burmedju and Kristang bremelu.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, spelt vermello.^[2]
• 1513 – vermelho in the Livro dos Mártires.^[24]
• 1544 – vermelho and vermelhas in private letters.^[25]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders vermelho with Latin ruber and rubicundus.^[26]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes three kinds of red.^[18]
• 1813 – Morais defines the colour by the blushing face.^[19]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the sense “revolutionary”.^[20]

Meanings

Adjective

1. red, of the colour of blood: uma camisola vermelha.^[2][22][1]
2. flushed, blushing; of the eyes, bloodshot: Ficou vermelho de vergonha.^[2][22]
3. (wine) Still young.^[2]
4. (politics) communist, socialist, left-wing; of or belonging to the former Soviet Union.^[2][5][1]
5. (Brazil) Of a song or joke, obscene.^[22][23]

Noun

1. The colour red.^[2][5][1]
2. A varnish made of resin and dragon's blood dissolved in alcohol.^[2][27]
3. (Brazil) Any of several red fishes of the genus Lutjanus, snappers.^[2][22]
4. (politics) A communist or left-winger.^[5][27]
5. (sports) A red card.^[1]

Word family

• avermelhar
• avermelhado
• vermelhidão
• vermelhar

Related words

• verme
• vermículo
• Latin vermiculus
• Spanish bermejo
• Galician vermello

Usage notes

The set phrase fazer-se vermelho means “to blush, be ashamed”.^[27][28]

Houaiss also enters a separate masculine noun vermelho in Brazil, short for piolho-vermelho, a red scale insect (Cerococcus parahybensis).^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vermelho
3. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vermelho
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. uermiculus
5. ^ 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. vermelho
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 567
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vermeil
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. vermiculus
10. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. vermiculus
11. ^ 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, 919
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9330
13. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. vermiculus
14. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bermejo
15. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. vermis
16. ^ 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. vermelho
17. ^ 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. vermelho
18. ^ 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. vermelho
19. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 846
20. ^ a b c Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. vermelho
21. ^ 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. vermelho
22. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vermelho
23. ^ a b 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. vermelho
24. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vermelho
25. ^ 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. vermelho
26. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vermelho
27. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9457
28. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vermelho