Portuguese words from Latin
2023 Portuguese words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 17).
jugo
It is inherited from Latin iugum (“yoke”), written Old Galician-Portuguese jugo in the oldest texts. Wiktionary attributes the preservation of the /u/ to metaphony. The same Latin word is Galician…
juiz
It is inherited from Latin iūdex (“judge”), recorded as Old Galician-Portuguese juiz in 1265 and as Old Galician-Portuguese joyz and Old Galician-Portuguese iuyz in the 13th century. Houaiss…
juízo
It is inherited from Latin iūdicium (“judgement, trial, sentence”), written Old Galician-Portuguese juyzo in the oldest texts. Wiktionary considers it probably a semi-learned word taken from the…
julgar
It is inherited from Latin iūdicō (“to judge, pass sentence”), a verb formed from iūdex (“judge”). The oldest record, of 1273, is Old Galician-Portuguese juigarom “they judged”, and the 13th century…
julho
It is inherited from Latin Iūlius (“(the month) of Julius”), written Old Galician-Portuguese jullo and Old Galician-Portuguese julio in the oldest texts. The Roman month, earlier quīntīlis…
junco
1. The word for the plant is inherited from Latin iuncus (“rush”). Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing, and Meyer-Lübke held the Spanish word to be learned too; most Portuguese dictionaries…
jungir
It is inherited from Latin iungō (“to yoke, join”). Nascentes considers it semi-learned. Houaiss and Cunha first record it in the 16th century, while Wiktionary dates it to about 1350. The same…
junho
It is inherited from Latin Iūnius (“(the month) of Juno”), written Old Galician-Portuguese junio and Old Galician-Portuguese juyo in the oldest texts. The Latin adjective is formed on Iūnō (“Juno”)…
juramento
It is inherited from Late Latin iūrāmentum (“oath”), written Old Galician-Portuguese iuramento in the oldest texts. Wiktionary notes that it can also be analysed as jurar with the suffix -mento. The…
jurar
It is inherited from Latin jūrō (“to swear, take an oath”), written Old Galician-Portuguese jurar in the oldest texts. The Latin verb is formed on jūs in its old sense of a ritual formula with the…
justiça
It is inherited from Latin iūstitia (“justice, equity”), written Old Galician-Portuguese justiça in the oldest texts. Nascentes and Aurélio call it a semi-learned word, and Wiktionary treats it as a…
justo
It is inherited from Latin iūstus (“lawful, just”), written Old Galician-Portuguese justo in the oldest texts. Corominas sees no conclusive reason to treat the word as learned in any Romance…
juventude
It is borrowed from Latin iuventūs (“youth”), first recorded in the 15th century. Nascentes calls it semi-learned and takes it from the Latin accusative, which ends in ⟨-ūtem⟩. Wiktionary also calls…
lá
1. The word for the musical note is borrowed from Italian la, recorded in Italian before 1527. Its name is the first syllable of labiī (“of the lip”), the first word of the sixth line of a medieval…
lã
It is inherited from Latin lāna (“wool”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lãa in the oldest texts. The /n/ between vowels fell and left the first vowel nasal; the two vowels of the old form then…
lábio
It is borrowed from Latin labium (“lip”), a learned word; the Latin noun was also used, mostly, in the plural. Houaiss dates it to 1589, in Arrais. Aurélio and the Porto dictionary give beiço as its…
laço
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *laceus, a Vulgar Latin form of laqueus (“noose, snare, trap”), written Old Galician-Portuguese laço in the oldest texts. Corominas explains the change of the Latin…
lado
It is inherited from Latin latus (“side, flank”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lado in the oldest texts. The Latin noun was neuter, with the same form in the nominative and accusative; Nascentes…
ladrão
It is inherited from Latin latrō (“mercenary soldier; robber”), continued in the form of its accusative latrōnem, and written Old Galician-Portuguese ladron in the oldest texts. Houaiss notes that…
ladrar
It is inherited from Latin lātrō (“to bark”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ladrar in the oldest texts. The same Latin verb is Romanian lătra, Italian latrare, Catalan lladrar, Occitan lairar and…
lagarto
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *lacartus, a by-form of Latin lacertus (“lizard; upper arm, muscle”). The oldest texts have Old Galician-Portuguese lagarto. Houaiss notes that the word kept both…
lago
It is inherited from Latin lacus (“lake; reservoir, basin”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lago in the oldest texts. Latin /k/ between vowels was voiced to /ɡ/. The same Latin word is Galician…
lagoa
It is inherited from Latin lacūna (“pit, hollow; pool”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lagõa and Old Galician-Portuguese lagua in the oldest texts. The Latin noun is a derivative of lacus (“lake…
lagosta
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *lacusta, the form that the Romance languages presuppose for Latin locusta (“locust; lobster”). The Latin word named both the insect and a marine crustacean…
lágrima
It is inherited from Latin lacrima (“tear”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lagrima in the oldest texts. Nascentes notes, after Nunes, that it is a popular word in spite of its stress on the third…
lamber
It is inherited from Latin lambō (“to lick”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lãber and Old Galician-Portuguese lamber in the 14th century. Corominas notes that in Romance the Latin verb lives on…
lamentar
It is borrowed from Late Latin lāmentō (“to lament”), a learned word. The Late Latin active verb is a collateral form, used in the Vulgate, of classical lāmentor, which is formed from lāmentum…
lançar
It is inherited from Late Latin lanceō (“to wield a lance, to throw a lance”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lançar in the oldest texts. The Late Latin verb is formed on lancea (“lance, light…
lânguido
It is borrowed from Latin languidus (“faint, weak, sluggish”), a learned word. The Latin adjective is formed on langueō (“to be faint or sluggish”) with the suffix -idus. The same Latin word…
lanterna
It is inherited from Latin lanterna (“lantern, lamp”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lanterna and Old Galician-Portuguese lenterna in the oldest texts. Latin also had the form laterna. The same…
lapa
Its origin is uncertain. Houaiss calls it controversial and probably pre-Celtic, from a word lappa (“stone”). Cunha and Porto Editora take it inherited from Vulgar Latin lapa (“stone”), a word of…
lar
It is inherited from Latin lar (“household god; hearth, home”). The REW counts the Portuguese word among the popular outcomes of the Latin word, beside Galician lar, Catalan llar and the Spanish…
lastimar
It is inherited from Late Latin blastēmō, an altered form of blasphēmō (“to revile, blaspheme”), which is from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō, “to speak profanely, slander”). Corominas explains…
lavadura
It is formed from Portuguese lavar + -dura, according to Aurélio, the DLP and Wiktionary. Houaiss analyses it as the stem of the participle lavado with the suffix -ura. Cunha dates it to the 16th…
lavar
It is inherited from Latin lavō (“to wash, bathe”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lavar in the oldest texts. The same Latin verb is Galician lavar, Spanish lavar, Catalan llavar, French laver…
lavor
It is inherited from Latin labor (“work, toil”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lauor in the oldest texts. Houaiss calls it a divergent of the learned form of the same word, which Cunha first…
lavrar
It is inherited from Latin labōrō (“to work, toil”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lavrar in the oldest texts. The Latin verb is formed from labor (“toil, labour”). Houaiss and Cunha treat it as…
leal
It is inherited from Latin lēgālis (“of the law; lawful”), written Old Galician-Portuguese leal in the oldest texts. It is the popular counterpart of the learned legal, from the same Latin word…
leão
It is inherited from Latin leō (“lion”), written Old Galician-Portuguese leon in the oldest texts. The Latin word is from Ancient Greek λέων (léōn), an old borrowing. The same Latin word is Galician…
lebre
It is inherited from Latin lepus (“hare”), from the accusative form, written Old Galician-Portuguese lebor in the oldest texts and Old Galician-Portuguese lebre from the 14th century. The unstressed…
legal
It is borrowed from Latin lēgālis (“of the law, legal”), from lēx (“law”) and the suffix -ālis. It is the learned doublet of leal “loyal”, the popular outcome of the same Latin word. Other Romance…
légua
It is inherited from Late Latin leuga (“league, a Gaulish measure of distance”), also written leuca. The Latin word named a measure of 1,500 Roman paces used in Gaul, and Roman writers already…
legume
It is borrowed from Latin legūmen (“pulse, leguminous plant”), taken over early and in learned form according to Houaiss. Wiktionary treats it instead as inherited, through Old Galician-Portuguese…
lei
It is inherited from Latin lēx (“law”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lee and Old Galician-Portuguese lei in the oldest texts. The two-syllable form, with the Latin /g/ lost between vowels, stood…
leigo
It is inherited from Latin lāicus (“of the people, lay”), written Old Galician-Portuguese leigo and Old Galician-Portuguese leygo in the oldest texts. Houaiss and Aurélio call it the popular form of…
leite
It is inherited from Latin lac (“milk”), written Old Galician-Portuguese leite in the oldest texts. The Latin noun was neuter, with an older nominative lacte; popular Latin made it masculine, and…
leito
It is inherited from Latin lectus (“bed, couch”), written Old Galician-Portuguese leito in the oldest texts and also Old Galician-Portuguese lleyto in the 14th century. Nascentes notes, after Nunes…
leituga
It is inherited from Latin lactūca (“lettuce”), written Old Galician-Portuguese leituga in the old language. The Latin word is formed from lac (“milk”) with a suffix found in other plant names…
lençol
It is inherited from Latin linteolum (“small piece of linen cloth”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lençoo in the medieval language. Cunha and the DLP start from a popular Latin form with ⟨e⟩ in…
lenda
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin legenda (“a saint's life; a reading”), written Old Galician-Portuguese leenda in the oldest texts. The Medieval Latin word is the neuter plural of the gerundive of…
lenha
It is inherited from Latin ligna (“firewood, logs”), the neuter plural of lignum (“wood”), taken as a feminine singular, and was written Old Galician-Portuguese lenna in the oldest texts. The…
lenho
It is inherited from Latin lignum (“wood, firewood”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lenno and Old Galician-Portuguese lenho in the oldest texts. Its doublet lenha “firewood” comes from the Latin…
lentilha
It is inherited from Latin lenticula (“lentil”), a diminutive of lēns (“lentil”). Wiktionary passes through the shortened form Vulgar Latin *lenticla, in which the group -cl- became ⟨lh⟩; Nascentes…
lento
It is inherited from Latin lentus (“pliant, flexible; sticky; slow”). Houaiss treats the word as a learned one, in which the Latin sense of time, “slow”, prevailed. Wiktionary distinguishes two…
lepra
It is borrowed from Latin lepra (“leprosy”), a learned word, which is from Ancient Greek λέπρα (lépra). In Greek the word named a disease that makes the skin scaly, and Wiktionary connects it with…
ler
It is inherited from Latin legō (“to gather, choose; to read”), written Old Galician-Portuguese leer in the oldest texts. The Latin verb first meant “to gather, pick up, choose”; Houaiss notes that…
letra
It is inherited from Latin littera (“letter of the alphabet”), by the popular route, written Old Galician-Portuguese letra and Old Galician-Portuguese letera in the oldest texts. Nascentes quotes…
levantar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *levantō, written Old Galician-Portuguese levantar in the oldest texts. The Vulgar Latin verb was formed on levāns, the present participle of levō (“to lift, raise…
levar
It is inherited from Latin levō (“to lift; to lighten, relieve”), Old Galician-Portuguese levar in the cantigas. The Latin verb is formed from the adjective levis (“light in weight”). It first meant…
leve
It is inherited from Latin levis (“light in weight”), written Old Galician-Portuguese leve in the oldest texts. The REW, however, puts the Portuguese and Spanish forms in brackets among the outcomes…