Portuguese words from Latin
2023 Portuguese words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 15).
gato
It is inherited from Late Latin cattus (“cat”), and has had the same form since the oldest texts, Old Galician-Portuguese gato. The Latin word meant first the wild cat and then the domestic one, and…
geada
It is inherited from Medieval Latin gelāta (“frost”), written Old Galician-Portuguese geada in the oldest texts. The Latin noun is the feminine past participle of Latin gelō (“to freeze”) used as a…
gear
It is inherited from Latin gelō (“to freeze”), through an unrecorded medieval Old Galician-Portuguese *gear. Houaiss calls it the divergent form of gelar, which Wiktionary treats as a borrowing of…
gelo
It is borrowed from Latin gelū (“frost, ice”), first recorded in the 14th century. It took the place of the inherited Old Galician-Portuguese geo, which is found in the 13th century. Corominas takes…
gêmeo
It is inherited from Latin geminus (“twin-born, twin; double”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gemẽo in the old language. The learned doublet is gêmino. The Latin word also gave Romanian geamăn…
gemer
It is inherited from Latin gemō (“to groan, moan”), with the same form Old Galician-Portuguese gemer in the oldest texts. Cunha derives it from a Vulgar Latin infinitive of the second conjugation…
gengiva
It is inherited from Latin gingīva (“gum”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gingiua in the oldest records. The same Latin word is Spanish encía, Catalan geniva, French gencive, Italian gengiva and…
genro
It is inherited from Latin gener (“son-in-law”), written Old Galician-Portuguese genrro in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician xenro, Spanish yerno, Catalan gendre, French gendre…
gente
It is inherited from Latin gēns (“clan, family, people, nation”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gente in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician xente, Catalan gent, Occitan gent…
gentil
It is borrowed from Latin gentīlis (“of the same clan or people; pagan”), taken by the learned route. Cunha dates it to the 13th century. French gentil, Italian gentile and Spanish gentil have the…
geral
It is inherited from Latin generālis (“of a kind; general”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gẽeral in the oldest texts. Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word. The Latin /n/ between vowels was…
gesso
It is inherited from Latin gypsum (“gypsum, plaster”), which is from Ancient Greek γύψος (gúpsos, “gypsum, chalk, cement”). Nascentes notes that Lokotsch allowed for Arabic influence and considered…
girar
It is borrowed from Latin gȳrō (“to make go round; to turn in a circle”), a learned word. Meyer-Lübke sees it as a Catalan word taken into Spanish and Portuguese. Silva Bastos and Figueiredo derive…
glóbulo
It is borrowed from Latin globulus (“little ball; pill”), learned. The Latin word is a diminutive of globus (“ball, round mass”) with -ulus. De Vaan thinks the Latin noun probably a loanword, like…
gola
It is inherited from Latin gula (“throat, gullet”). Wiktionary gives a medieval Old Galician-Portuguese gola and calls the word a doublet of the learned gula. Nascentes reports that Adolfo Coelho…
golpe
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *colpus (“blow”), first written Old Galician-Portuguese colbe and Old Galician-Portuguese colpe, then Old Galician-Portuguese golpe. The Vulgar Latin form, which Du…
golpelha
It is inherited from Latin vulpēcula (“little fox”), a diminutive of vulpēs (“fox”), written Old Galician-Portuguese golpella in the oldest texts. Lorenzo holds that the initial /ɡ/ is a normal…
gordo
It is inherited from Latin gurdus (“dull, stupid; a dolt”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gordo in the oldest texts. The Latin word meant a slow-witted person; Nascentes notes that in Portuguese…
gostar
It is inherited from Latin gustō (“to taste”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gostar in the oldest texts. Houaiss derives the learned gustar from the same Latin verb. The same Latin verb is…
gosto
It is inherited from Latin gustus (“taste, tasting”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gosto in the oldest texts. Houaiss notes that the Latin noun also meant a small portion taken to taste. The same…
gota
It is inherited from Latin gutta (“drop”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gota in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician gota, Spanish gota, Catalan gota, Occitan gota, French goutte and…
goteira
It is formed from Portuguese gota + -eira. The base word, meaning “drop”, is from Latin gutta. The same formation is Spanish gotera, and French gouttière is formed alike from goutte.
governador
It is inherited from Latin gubernātor (“helmsman, pilot”), written Old Galician-Portuguese governador in the oldest texts. The Latin noun was formed from gubernō (“to steer a ship”) with the agent…
governar
It is inherited from Latin gubernō (“to steer a ship; to direct, govern”), written Old Galician-Portuguese governar in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician gobernar, Spanish gobernar…
graça
It is inherited from Latin grātia (“favour, goodwill, gratitude”), written Old Galician-Portuguese graça in the oldest texts. Houaiss lists the Latin senses “gratitude, thanks; favour, goodwill…
grade
It is inherited from Latin crātis (“wickerwork, hurdle”), through the Vulgar Latin form of the word, written Old Galician-Portuguese grade in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician grade…
gralha
It is inherited from Late Latin grācula, the feminine of Latin grāculus (“jackdaw”), through a syncopated Vulgar Latin *gracla. Aurélio describes it as the Latin masculine with a change of gender in…
gramatical
It is borrowed from Latin grammaticālis (“of grammar”). Nascentes calls it semi-learned. The Latin adjective is formed from grammatica (“grammar”) with -ālis, and the noun goes back through…
grande
It is inherited from Latin grandis (“full-grown, big, great”), written Old Galician-Portuguese grande and, before a consonant, Old Galician-Portuguese gran in the oldest texts. Nascentes notes that…
grão
1. The word for “grain” is inherited from Latin grānum (“grain, seed”), written Old Galician-Portuguese grão in the oldest texts. The Latin -n- between vowels was lost and left the vowel nasal…
grau
It is inherited from Latin gradus (“step, pace; rank, degree”), written Old Galician-Portuguese grao and Old Galician-Portuguese graao in the oldest texts. The learned grado “degree” is a doublet of…
gravar
1. The verb for “to burden, encumber” is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin gravō (“to weigh down, burden, aggravate”), according to Houaiss, Nascentes and Wiktionary. Houaiss dates it to the…
grave
It is inherited from Latin gravis (“heavy; serious”), written Old Galician-Portuguese grave in the oldest texts. Beside it the 13th-century poets also used Old Galician-Portuguese greu, which Cunha…
graxo
It is inherited from Late Latin grassus (“fat”), a later form of Latin crassus (“thick, fat”). Cunha starts from a form *grassius, which would explain the ⟨x⟩. Wiktionary also sees the influence of…
greda
It is inherited from Latin crēta (“fine clay, chalk”). Nascentes and Aurélio (1975) start from Vulgar Latin *greta, a Hispanic form with the voiced initial. Nunes, as Nascentes reports, puts the /ɡ/…
grego
It is inherited from Latin Graecus (“Greek”), written Old Galician-Portuguese grego in the oldest texts. The Latin word is from Ancient Greek Γραικός (Graikós), an old name of the Hellenes…
grei
It is inherited from Latin grex (“flock, herd”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gree and Old Galician-Portuguese grey in the oldest texts. Nascentes explains the diphthong by the vocalisation of…
gritar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *crītō (“to cry out”), a reduced form of Latin quirītō (“to cry out for help, raise a public outcry”). The classical verb was explained already in antiquity as “to…
grosso
It is inherited from Late Latin grossus (“thick”), written Old Galician-Portuguese grosso in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician groso, Spanish grueso, Catalan gros, French gros…
grou
The word for the bird is inherited from Latin grus (“crane”), which was feminine and only rarely masculine in Latin. The ending is explained by a Latin form *gruus for the accusative of the Latin…
grumo
It is inherited from Latin grūmus (“heap of earth, hillock”), according to Wiktionary and the REW, which list the word among the Romance outcomes of the Latin noun. Houaiss, Cunha and Nascentes give…
grunhir
It is inherited from Latin grunniō (“to grunt (of a pig)”), written Old Galician-Portuguese grunir in the 14th century. Wiktionary gives the old form as Old Galician-Portuguese grunnir. The palatal…
guardar
It is inherited from Medieval Latin wardō (“to guard, to herd”), also written with gu-, and was Old Galician-Portuguese guardar in the oldest texts. The Medieval Latin verb was taken from Germanic…
guardião
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin guardianus, which Houaiss explains as a romanisation of Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wardjan), the accusative of 𐍅𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰 (wardja, “watchman, sentry”). Wiktionary and the DLP…
guiar
It is inherited from Medieval Latin *guidō (“to guide”), written Old Galician-Portuguese guiar in the oldest texts. The verb is as old as each of the western Romance languages: Spanish guiar…
hábito
It is borrowed from Latin habitus (“condition, bearing; appearance; dress”), written Old Galician-Portuguese abito in the oldest texts. Wiktionary treats the Old Galician-Portuguese word as the…
haver
It is inherited from Latin habeō (“to have, hold”), written Old Galician-Portuguese aver in the oldest texts. The noun, “possessions; credit”, is the same infinitive used as a noun, as it already…
hera
It is inherited from Latin hedera (“ivy”), written Old Galician-Portuguese edra in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician hedra, Spanish hiedra, Catalan heura, Italian edera and Romanian…
herdar
It is inherited from Late Latin hērēditō (“to inherit”), written Old Galician-Portuguese erdar in the oldest texts. Nascentes derives it through *herdidar, shortened by haplology, and Houaiss gives…
herdeiro
It is inherited from Latin hērēditārius (“of an inheritance”), written Old Galician-Portuguese erdeiro and Old Galician-Portuguese herdeyro in the oldest texts. Houaiss notes that the adjective…
herói
It is borrowed from Latin hērōs (“hero, demigod”), from Ancient Greek ἥρως (hḗrōs, “chief, noble; demigod, hero”). Houaiss dates it to the 15th century from Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese…
hoje
It is inherited from Latin hodiē (“today”), written Old Galician-Portuguese oje and Old Galician-Portuguese oge in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician hoxe, Spanish hoy, Catalan avui…
homem
It is inherited from Latin homo (“human being, man”), continued from the accusative hominem, and was written Old Galician-Portuguese omẽe, Old Galician-Portuguese ome and Old Galician-Portuguese…
honesto
It is borrowed from Latin honestus (“honoured, respected; honourable, virtuous”), written Old Galician-Portuguese onesto in the 13th century. Nascentes says it came in by the learned route. The same…
honrar
It is inherited from Latin honōrō (“to honour, treat with distinction”), written Old Galician-Portuguese onrrar and Old Galician-Portuguese onrar in the oldest texts. The Latin verb is formed from…
hora
It is inherited from Latin hōra (“hour; time, season”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ora in the oldest texts. The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ὥρα (hṓra, “season, time of day, hour”), as…
horrível
It is borrowed from Latin horribilis (“causing horror, dreadful”), a learned word. Nascentes calls it semi-learned. The first records spell the ending ⟨-ble⟩ and ⟨-bel⟩. The same Latin word gave…
horror
It is borrowed from Latin horror (“bristling of the hair; shuddering; dread”), a learned word first recorded at the end of the 17th century. The Latin noun is formed from horreō (“to bristle…
horto
It is inherited from Latin hortus (“garden”), written Old Galician-Portuguese orto in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician horto, Spanish huerto, Catalan hort, Old French ort and…
hospedar
It is inherited from Late Latin hospitō (“to lodge, receive as a guest”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ospedar in the oldest texts. The DDGM, the DLP and Michaelis name the classical deponent…