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vizinho

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word vizinho

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s Cantigas de Santa Maria More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin vecinus
Ultimate origin
Latin vīcus

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /viˈzĩ.ɲu/, [viˈzĩ.j̃u][1]
  • Portugal: /viˈzi.ɲu/[1]
  • Northern, Portugal: /biˈzi.ɲu/[1]
  • Central, Portugal: /vɨˈzi.ɲu/[1]

Forms

vizinho (feminine vizinha, masculine plural vizinhos, feminine plural vizinhas)[1] Houaiss records vezynna and vezyos in the 13th century, vizinhos in 1365, uizinhas and veziños in the 14th century and vesinho in 1721.[2] Bluteau and Folqman head the word visinho.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin vēcīnus, a variant of vīcīnus (“neighbour; of the village”), written Old Galician-Portuguese vezĩo, Old Galician-Portuguese vezinno and Old Galician-Portuguese vezinho in the oldest texts.[2][5][6][1] The form with e is probably due to dissimilation of the two i's; it is found in Servius and in an Italian document of 715.[1] Meyer-Lübke derives the Portuguese, Spanish, French and Romanian words from it.[7] Nascentes adds that the dissimilated pronunciation prevailed in Portugal.[8]

The Latin -n- between vowels was lost, leaving a nasal vowel in the old form;[6][9] Michaëlis observed that spellings such as Old Galician-Portuguese vezynnas show that the nasal had already become the palatal consonant of the modern word.[6][9]

The same word is Galician veciño, Spanish vecino, Catalan veí, Occitan vesin, French voisin, Italian vicino and Romanian vecin.[7][1] The Latin adjective is formed on vīcus (“village, quarter, street”) with the suffix -īnus.[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of a man who a todos seus vezỹos feria e dẽostava “struck and insulted all his neighbours”, and pray to be made vezinnos of paradise.[11] A satirical cantiga by Pero Garcia Burgales has non cata parente nen vezinho “he heeds neither kinsman nor neighbour”.[6]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the noun meant both a neighbour and a resident with the rights of a town or village: a Galician register of 1395 names Fernã Pellaes Carneiro, veziño de Noya.[12] The sense “inhabitant” survives, and Priberam and Silva Bastos also record “an inhabited house”.[2][13][14]

As an adjective it extended from “near in space” to “near in time”, “closely related” and “similar”, and in music to a key that differs from another by one accidental at most.[2][15] The word passed into the creoles: Kabuverdianu bizinhu, Guinea-Bissau Creole vizinhu and Papiamentu bisiña.[1]

Timeline

  • 13th century – vezynna and vezyos;[2][11] vezinnos in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[2][11]
  • 1365 – the spelling vizinhos.[2]
  • 1395 – veziño de Noya in a Galician notarial register.[12]
  • 1513 – first record in the CTA, in the Livro dos Mártires.[16]
  • 1559 – vizinha in a private letter.[17]
  • 1712–1728 – Bluteau heads the word visinho.[3]
  • 1721 – the spelling vesinho.[2]
  • 1854 – the learned vicinal is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. near, close by.[2][1]
  2. Living or situated nearby: as casas vizinhas.[2][18]
  3. adjacent, bordering, neighbouring: a cidade vizinha.[2][1]
  4. (figurative) Similar, analogous.[2][1]
  5. Near in time.[2][19]
  6. Closely related (of kin).[2][15]
  7. (music) Of a key: having the same number of accidentals as another, or one more or one fewer.[2][15]

Noun

  1. A neighbour, a person who lives near another: O vizinho do lado tem três cães.[2][1]
  2. A person next to one on some occasion: o meu vizinho de banco.[2][18]
  3. An inhabitant, resident of a place.[2][13]

Word family

  • vizinhança
  • vizinhar
  • avizinhar

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vizinho
  3. ^ 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. vizinho
  4. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vizinho
  5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vizinho
  6. ^ a b c d 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. vezinho
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9312
  8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vizinho
  9. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. vicinus
  10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. uīcīnus
  11. ^ a b c 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. vezinno
  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. veziño
  13. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. vizinho
  14. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. vizinho
  15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vizinho
  16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vizinho
  17. ^ 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. vizinho
  18. ^ a b 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. vizinho
  19. ^ 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. vizinho

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Vizinho.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/vizinho. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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