voo

Forms

voo m (plural voos)^[1] Before the Orthographic Agreement of 1990 the word was written vôo, with a circumflex, as Houaiss heads it.^[2][1] Folqman (1755) and Morais (1813) mark the vowel with accents as vôo and vòo.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Portuguese voar (“to fly”), the noun made from the verb without a suffix.^[2][5][6][7] DELPo compares Spanish vuelo, formed in the same way from volar.^[8]

The verb voar is inherited from Latin volō (“to fly”), written Old Galician-Portuguese voar already in the 13th century.^[9][10][11] De Vaan derives the Latin verb from a Proto-Italic stem going back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷelh₁- (“to raise the arm, throw”), the sense “to lift the arm” having shifted to the flapping of a bird's wings.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the noun to the 15th century, from the slips of Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, with the sense “the act of flying”.^[2] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 already enters Voo with the Latin equivalent volatus.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau describes at length the different flights of birds, light or heavy, round or straight, and quotes the phrase tomar o voo “to take flight”.^[14] Morais records tomar o voo muito alto for growing very proud and os voos do engenho for lofty, uncommon thoughts.^[15] With the aeroplane the word came to mean a journey by air and the route of an aircraft, as in o voo Rio-São Paulo.^[2][16] Houaiss also has figurative senses “success, achievement” and “rapture, ecstasy”, and technical ones in architecture and heraldry, where a voo is a pair of bird's wings set back to back.^[2]

Timeline

• 1400s – first record of the noun.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary enters Voo as volatus.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the flight of different birds and gives tomar o voo.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais records os voos do engenho “lofty thoughts”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. flight: the movement through the air of a bird, an insect or an aircraft, without touching the ground.^[2][7][1]
2. A manner of flying: voo rasante, voo picado.^[2][17]
3. The distance covered in one flight, without stopping.^[7][18]
4. A journey by air; a scheduled trip of an airliner and its route: O meu voo para Lisboa atrasou.^[2][7][18]
5. Any swift movement through the air, as of a bullet or leaves in the wind.^[2][7]
6. (figurative) A lofty impulse of the mind or talent; rapture, ecstasy.^[2][7]
7. (figurative) Success, an achievement.^[2]
8. (heraldry) A pair of bird's wings set back to back with the tips upward.^[2]

Related words

• voar
• voador
• revoada
• Latin volō
• Spanish vuelo

Usage notes

Levantar voo means “to take off”, of a bird or an aircraft.^[18] Voo cego is a flight in which the aircraft is piloted by instruments alone.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vôo
3. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. voo
4. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 865
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. voo
6. ^ 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. voo
7. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. voo
8. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. voo
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. voar
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. voar
11. ^ 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. voar
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. voo
14. ^ 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. voo
15. ^ 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, 536
16. ^ 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. voo
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9579
18. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. voo