Portuguese words from Latin
2023 Portuguese words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 18).
liar
Houaiss, Cunha, the REW and García de Diego agree that it is inherited from Latin ligō (“to tie, bind”), with the form Old Galician-Portuguese liar in the oldest texts. Wiktionary instead considers…
liberdade
It is borrowed from Latin lībertās (“freedom, the condition of a free person”), a learned word already in use in the oldest Galician-Portuguese documents as Old Galician-Portuguese liberdade…
libertar
Houaiss analyses it as from Portuguese liberto + -ar, from the adjective meaning “freed”, which is from Latin lībertus (“freedman”) and is recorded from the 14th century. The DLP, Priberam and Porto…
libra
It is inherited from Latin libra (“pound (weight); pair of scales”), written Old Galician-Portuguese livra in the oldest texts. Nascentes explains the modern ⟨b⟩ in place of ⟨v⟩ by the usual…
lição
It is inherited from Latin lectio (“a choosing; a reading”), written Old Galician-Portuguese liçon and Old Galician-Portuguese liçõ in the 14th century. The Latin noun meant the act of choosing and…
lidar
It is probably inherited from Latin lītigō (“to quarrel, go to law”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lidar and Old Galician-Portuguese lidear in the oldest texts. Houaiss calls the origin disputed…
ligar
It is inherited from Latin ligō (“to tie, bind”), written Old Galician-Portuguese legar in the oldest texts. Wiktionary takes the modern form to be semi-learned, with the ⟨i⟩ of the Latin word…
limitação
It is borrowed from Latin līmitātiō (“the fixing of boundaries”), first recorded in 1446 as Old Galician-Portuguese limitaçom. Nascentes calls it semi-learned. The Latin noun is formed from līmitō…
limo
It is inherited from Latin līmus (“mud, slime”). Houaiss dates the Portuguese word to the 14th century from Cunha's medieval slips. The same Latin word is Galician limo, Spanish limo, Asturian…
limpo
It is inherited from Latin limpidus (“clear, transparent”), written Old Galician-Portuguese limpio and Old Galician-Portuguese linpio in the 13th century and Old Galician-Portuguese limpo from the…
lindar
It is inherited from Latin līmitō (“to enclose within boundaries”), the popular counterpart of the learned limitar. The same verb is Spanish lindar. The Latin verb is formed from līmes (“boundary”)…
língua
It is inherited from Latin lingua (“tongue; language”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lingua and Old Galician-Portuguese lengua in the 13th century. Houaiss calls its sound shape semi-learned and…
linha
It is inherited from Latin līnea (“linen thread, string; line”), written Old Galician-Portuguese linna in the oldest texts. The Latin noun is the feminine of the adjective līneus (“of flax, linen”)…
linho
It is inherited from Latin līnum (“flax; linen”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lynno and Old Galician-Portuguese lỹo in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician liño, Spanish lino…
liso
According to Houaiss it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *lisius, a word of obscure origin, perhaps an expressive creation, which is shared by the languages of Iberia, southern France, the Alps and…
livrar
It is inherited from Latin līberō (“to set free”), written Old Galician-Portuguese livrar and Old Galician-Portuguese liurar in the oldest texts. Aurélio stresses that it is the popular outcome of…
livre
It is inherited from Latin līber (“free”), written Old Galician-Portuguese livre and Old Galician-Portuguese libre in the oldest texts. Its final -e, where the Latin accusative līberum would not…
livro
It is borrowed from Latin liber (“bark of a tree; book”), written Old Galician-Portuguese livro and Old Galician-Portuguese lyvro in the oldest texts. Wiktionary treats it as an early borrowing of…
lixívia
It is borrowed from Latin lixīvia (“lye”), a learned word. Latin had both the feminine (with cinis (“ash”) understood) and the neuter lixīvium for lye. They are the feminine and neuter of the…
local
It is borrowed from Late Latin locālis (“of a place”), taken as a learned word. The Latin adjective is formed from locus (“place”) with -ālis. The same Latin adjective, through Old…
lodo
It is inherited from Latin lutum (“mud, dirt, clay”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ludo and then Old Galician-Portuguese lodo in the old texts. The same Latin noun is Romanian lut, Italian loto…
lograr
It is inherited from Latin lucror (“to gain, make a profit”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lograr in the oldest texts. Cunha, Nascentes, Aurélio, the DLP and Porto Editora start from the active…
logro
It is inherited from Latin lucrum (“gain, profit”), the popular form of the word whose learned doublet is lucro. Aulete's old edition took the noun from the verb lograr, itself the popular…
lombriga
It is inherited from Latin lumbrīcus (“earthworm; intestinal worm”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lombriga in the oldest texts, with a change from masculine to feminine. Michaelis and DELPo start…
longe
It is inherited from Latin longē (“far, a long way”), written Old Galician-Portuguese longe in the oldest texts, beside Old Galician-Portuguese longi. The Latin adverb is formed from the adjective…
longo
It is inherited from Latin longus (“long”), written Old Galician-Portuguese longo in the oldest texts. Beside it, the Latin adverb longē gave the Portuguese adverb meaning “far”. The same Latin word…
lousa
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *lausa (“flat stone, slate”), a pre-Roman word. The adjective Latin lausiae is attested, in a phrase meaning “stone chips”, in the mining law of Vipasca, a bronze…
louvar
It is inherited from Latin laudō (“to praise”), from laus (“praise”), through the older Old Galician-Portuguese loar and Old Galician-Portuguese louar. In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda every form of the…
lua
It is inherited from Latin lūna (“moon”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lũa in the oldest texts. Houaiss and Aurélio call it the popular outcome of the Latin word. The same Latin word is Galician…
lugar
It is inherited from Latin locālis (“of a place, local”), an adjective used as a noun, written both Old Galician-Portuguese lugar and Old Galician-Portuguese logar in the oldest texts. The Latin…
lume
It is inherited from Latin lūmen (“light; lamp; fire”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lume in the oldest texts. Houaiss notes that the Portuguese form could continue the nominative, as a learned…
luta
It is inherited from Late Latin lucta (“wrestling; struggle”), written Old Galician-Portuguese luita in the oldest texts. The diphthong of the old form was later reduced, giving the modern form. The…
lutador
It is inherited from Latin luctātor (“wrestler”), first written Old Galician-Portuguese luitador and luytador. Nascentes calls the word semi-learned. Wiktionary notes that in today's language it can…
lutar
It is inherited from Latin luctor (“to wrestle, to struggle”), through the active form of the verb, written Old Galician-Portuguese luitar in the oldest texts. Cunha and Nascentes start from the…
luz
It is inherited from Latin lūx (“light”), and the medieval texts already write Old Galician-Portuguese luz. The Latin noun also meant “daylight, day”, and figuratively “publicity” and “brilliance”…
luzerna
1. The word for a great light is inherited from Latin lucerna (“oil lamp”). Cunha dates it to the 14th century. The Latin noun is formed from lūceō (“to shine”), with the ending also seen in…
luzir
It is inherited from Latin lūceō (“to shine”), written Old Galician-Portuguese luzir in the oldest texts, with a change of conjugation. Wiktionary and Nascentes start from a fourth-conjugation verb…
maça
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *mattea (“club”). Houaiss prefers the spelling *matea, and Machado and Wiktionary a form mattia, which Wiktionary records as Late Latin. It is generally taken as a…
macho
It is inherited from Latin masculus (“male”), through the shortened Vulgar Latin masclus, written Old Galician-Portuguese macho in the oldest texts. The Appendix Probi already corrects the short…
madeira
It is inherited from Latin materia (“stuff, material; timber”), written Old Galician-Portuguese madeira and Old Galician-Portuguese madeyra in the oldest texts. Its learned doublet, a later…
madeixa
It is inherited from Latin mataxa (“rough thread, tow”), a word also spelt metaxa. The Latin word is from Ancient Greek μέταξα (métaxa, “raw silk”), itself of unknown origin. The same Latin word is…
madrinha
It is inherited from Late Latin mātrīna (“godmother”), a diminutive of māter (“mother”). Houaiss and Aurélio mark the Latin word as a reconstructed popular form, while Wiktionary notes that it is…
madurar
It is inherited from Latin mātūrō (“to ripen”), the popular form of the word whose learned doublet is maturar. The Latin verb is formed from mātūrus (“ripe”), which gave maduro. The same Latin verb…
maduro
It is inherited from Latin mātūrus (“ripe; timely”), written Old Galician-Portuguese maduro in the oldest texts. Houaiss explains the Latin sense as “produced at the right moment, at the favourable…
mãe
It is inherited from Latin māter (“mother”), through changes that Cunha calls somewhat obscure. Houaiss and Nascentes explain it as a reduction of the full form Old Galician-Portuguese madre to a…
magia
It is borrowed from Late Latin magīa (“magic, sorcery”), which is from Ancient Greek μαγεία (mageía, “the lore of the Magi; magic”). Nascentes calls it a learned word. The Greek noun is formed from…
magoar
It is inherited from Latin maculō (“to stain, spot; to dishonour”): Houaiss calls it a semi-learned form, and Cunha and Aurélio a popular one. Wiktionary allows also that it was formed on the noun…
magro
It is inherited from Latin macer (“thin, lean”), written Old Galician-Portuguese magro in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician magro, Spanish magro, Catalan magre, Occitan magre, French…
maio
It is inherited from Latin Maius (“May”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mayo in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician maio, Spanish mayo, Catalan maig, Occitan mai, French mai and…
maior
It is inherited from Latin maior (“greater”), the comparative of magnus (“great”), written Old Galician-Portuguese maior and Old Galician-Portuguese mayor in the oldest texts. The contracted Old…
mais
It is inherited from Latin magis (“more, rather”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mais and Old Galician-Portuguese mays in the oldest texts. Cunha notes that the Latin word shares its root with…
majestade
It is borrowed from Latin maiestās (“greatness, dignity, majesty”), written Old Galician-Portuguese magestade and Old Galician-Portuguese majestade in the oldest texts. Nascentes counts it among the…
maldizer
It is inherited from Latin maledīcō (“to speak ill of, revile”), recorded in the Old Galician-Portuguese texts of the 13th century. The Latin verb is formed from male (“badly”) and dīcō (“to say”)…
malho
It is inherited from Latin malleus (“hammer, mallet”), through the popular spoken language. Nascentes compares Spanish mallo. The same Latin word is Galician mallo, Catalan mall, Old Occitan malh…
malva
It is inherited from Latin malva (“mallow”). Nascentes 1966 takes the word to have come by the learned route, while Houaiss and Wiktionary simply derive it from the Latin plant name; Houaiss adds…
mama
It is inherited from Latin mamma (“breast, udder; mother”), already written Old Galician-Portuguese mama in the oldest texts. Houaiss notes that the Latin word meant the breast of men, women and…
mancha
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *mancla, from Latin macula (“spot, stain”). The unstressed vowel of the Latin word was lost, and the resulting cluster /kl/ became /ʃ/, written ⟨ch⟩, as in other…
manco
It is inherited from Latin mancus (“maimed, having a useless hand”), written Old Galician-Portuguese manco in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Spanish manco, Catalan manc and Old French…
mandar
It is inherited from Latin mandō (“to entrust, commit; to order”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mandar in the oldest texts. The Latin verb is usually explained as “to put into someone's hand”…
maneira
Most sources hold that it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *manuāria, the feminine used as a noun of Latin manuārius (“of the hand, handy”), from manus (“hand”); it is written Old Galician-Portuguese…