vosso

Forms

vosso (feminine vossa, masculine plural vossos, feminine plural vossas)^[1] Houaiss records the medieval spelling uoso beside vosso.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin voster (“your (plural)”), the archaic and popular form of vester, written Old Galician-Portuguese vosso in the oldest texts.^[1][3][4] Nascentes and Aurélio explain the vowel of the archaic form as an analogy with noster (“our”).^[5][6] Houaiss starts from a Vulgar Latin *vossus.^[2]

The reduction of /st/ to /ss/ is not regular, and the sources explain it in several ways.^[4] Carolina Michaëlis saw in the Portuguese word a shortened familiar form of vostro.^[7] Leite de Vasconcelos, followed by Otoniel Mota, traced it to the unstressed use of the possessive before a noun, where a forceful assimilation could take place.^[4][5] Cornu considered the Vulgar Latin form a new formation, and others suppose that the ⟨r⟩ was lost first and the ⟨t⟩ then assimilated to the ⟨s⟩.^[4][5]

The same Latin word is Galician voso, Spanish vuestro, Catalan vostre, French votre, Italian vostro and Romanian vostru.^[4][1] It goes back to *westeros.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the cantigas of the 13th century the possessive is common both before a noun and with the article: the Cantigas de Santa Maria have de vosso ben ei mester “I have need of your favour” and os vossos corações “your hearts”.^[7][2] The Cancioneiro da Ajuda also uses it as a noun, o vosso “what is yours, your interest”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The troubadours used it in many set phrases: a vosso grado “by your leave”, sen vosso grado “against your will”, a vosso dizer “by your account”.^[8] In the old language and into the 18th century the pronoun could be used to one person as well as to several: Bluteau and Folqman give Latin tuus for one and vester for many.^[9][10] In present-day Brazil it is archaic or religious, kept in formal, legal and religious language and in forms of address such as Vossa Excelência and Vossa Senhoria, which take a verb in the third person.^[1][11] In European Portuguese it stays in common use as the possessive of the plural vocês.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 13th century – vosso and uoso in the cantigas.^[2][7]
• c. 1430 – first record in the CTA, in the Horto do Esposo.^[14]
• 1500 – vosa in a private letter of the Post Scriptum corpus.^[15]
• 1712 – Bluteau describes it as the possessive of the second person, for one or several people.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as belonging to the person or persons spoken to.^[16]

Meanings

Determiner

1. your (plural): belonging to or related to the people addressed as vós, or in Portugal as vocês: A vossa casa é muito grande.^[2][12][1]
2. (archaic or formal) Your, said to one person addressed as vós; in forms of address such as Vossa Excelência.^[1][11]

Pronoun

1. yours (plural): Este carro é o vosso.^[2][1]
2. os vossos: your family, friends or companions.^[2][12]

Related words

• vós
• nosso
• Latin vester
• Galician voso
• Spanish vuestro

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vosso
3. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. voster
4. ^ a b c d e Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 529
5. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vosso
6. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vosso
7. ^ 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. vosso
8. ^ 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. vosso
9. ^ 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. vosso
10. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vosso
11. ^ 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. vosso
12. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9581
13. ^ 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. vosso
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vosso
15. ^ 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. vosso
16. ^ 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