viúvo

Forms

viúvo (feminine viúva, masculine plural viúvos, feminine plural viúvas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin viduus (“deprived of husband or wife”), through a form *viduvus.^[2][1] Cunha and Aurélio see the masculine as formed on the feminine viúva, and Nascentes explains that in many Indo-European languages the word for the widow came first and that for the widower is a later creation from it.^[3][4][5] The feminine is from vidua through *viduva, with the stress moved to the ⟨u⟩ and the ⟨u⟩ doubled in hiatus, as in louvar and ouvir.^[6][3][7]

The same Latin word is Galician viúvo, Spanish viudo, French veuf, Italian vedovo and Romanian văduv.^{[8][9][10][1]} The French masculine was itself remade on the feminine veuve.^[10]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *wiþowo- and *h₁ui-dʰh₁-eu-o- (“separated”), and compares Old Irish fedb and the Sanskrit word for “widow”.^[11] The OLD adds the Gothic and English words for “widow”.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the adjective to the 13th century and Cunha the noun “widower” to the same century.^[2][3] The feminine is better recorded in the old texts: uiuuoa in the 13th century and viiuuva in 1365.^[6][3] Houaiss gives the masculine spelt vyuuo in the 15th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides the widower, the adjective has the transferred senses “deprived, lacking” and “forsaken, lonely”, which literary authors use of things as well as people.^[2][4][13] In Brazil, jokingly, a viúvo or viúva of something is a person still devoted to a cause or leader that has fallen from favour.^[13][1] Priberam and Michaelis record a Brazilian sense for one left alone in a fight that his companions have fled.^[14][15] In law the word is used of the surviving spouse.^[2]

Timeline

• 1200s – first records of the adjective and the noun.^[2][3]
• 1365 – the feminine spelt viiuuva.^[6]
• 1400s – the masculine spelt vyuuo.^[2]
• 1500s – first records of viuvez and enviuvar.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. widowed; whose wife or husband has died and who has not married again.^[2][1][16]
2. (figurative) Deprived, lacking: uma casa viúva de alegria.^[2][4]
3. (figurative) forsaken, helpless, lonely.^[2][1][16]

Noun

1. A widower.^[2][1][4]
2. (law) The surviving spouse of a marriage ended by death.^[2][13]
3. (Brazil, humorous) A person who remains devoted to a cause or person that has fallen from favour.^[13][1]

Related words

• viúva
• viuvez
• enviuvar
• Latin viduus
• Spanish viudo

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. viúvo
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. viúva
4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. viúvo
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. viúvo
6. ^ a b c Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. viúva
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. viúva
8. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. viúvo
9. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. viudo
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. veuf
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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d 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. viúvo
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. viúvo
15. ^ 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. viúvo
16. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9553