Portuguese words from Catalan
7 Portuguese words with Catalan in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
avançar
It is borrowed from Catalan avançar (“to go forward”), which comes from Vulgar Latin *abantiō, derived from Late Latin abante (“in front, forward”), a compound of Latin ab and ante. Houaiss names…
bosque
It is borrowed from Catalan bosc, or the Occitan word of the same form, bosc: Houaiss and Aurélio leave the choice open, Cunha and Michaelis name Catalan, and Wiktionary, the DLP and Priberam name…
esquife
Houaiss, Nascentes and Aurélio take it as borrowed from Catalan esquif, which is from Italian schifo (“a small boat serving a larger ship”), recorded before 1470, itself from Lombardic *skif. Cunha…
nau
It is borrowed from Catalan nau (“ship”), from Latin nāvis (“ship”). Houaiss dates the Catalan word to the 13th century. Aurélio and the Porto dictionary also give Latin as the ultimate source with…
orgulho
It is borrowed from Catalan orgull (“pride”), written Old Galician-Portuguese orgullo in the 13th century. Whether it came straight from Catalan or through Spanish orgullo is not settled: Cunha and…
surgir
In its first, nautical senses, “to lie at anchor, to put into port, to drop anchor”, it is borrowed from Catalan sorgir, recorded in the 13th century, which is from Latin surgō (“to rise, get up”)…
vinagre
It is borrowed from Catalan vinagre, a compound of vin (“wine”) and agre (“sour”), from Latin vīnum (“wine”) and ācre (“sharp, sour”). Houaiss, following Cunha, and Wiktionary take it through…