Portuguese words from Latin
2023 Portuguese words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 2).
algum
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *alicūnus, written Old Galician-Portuguese algũu in the oldest texts. The Vulgar Latin word joins Latin aliquis (“someone, some”) and ūnus (“one”). Machado and…
alheio
It is inherited from Latin aliēnus (“belonging to someone else; foreign”), written Old Galician-Portuguese aleno, Old Galician-Portuguese aleo and Old Galician-Portuguese alhẽo in the oldest texts…
alho
It is inherited from Latin allium (“garlic”), written Old Galician-Portuguese alho in the oldest texts. Machado notes that the older Latin spelling was ālium, with ⟨allium⟩ the more recent spelling…
ali
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *adlic, formed from Latin ad (“to, towards”) and illīc (“at that place, there”), and is written Old Galician-Portuguese ali and Old Galician-Portuguese aly in the…
alinhar
It is formed from Portuguese a- + linha + -ar. Machado derives it simply from linha. DELPo compares Spanish aliñar. The noun is from Latin līnea (“linen thread, string, line”), a noun from the…
alma
It is inherited from Latin anima (“breath, air; the principle of life; the soul”), written Old Galician-Portuguese alma in the oldest texts. After the unstressed middle vowel was lost, the two…
almoço
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *admordium (“a bite, light meal”), written Old Galician-Portuguese almorço in the old language. The Vulgar Latin noun comes from Latin admordeō (“to bite into…
altar
It is inherited from Latin altāre (“altar”), written Old Galician-Portuguese altar in the oldest texts. Nascentes considers it a learned word. Machado notes that classical authors mostly used the…
alteza
It is inherited from Late Latin altitia (“height”), written Old Galician-Portuguese alteza in the oldest texts. The Late Latin noun is formed altus (“high”) with the suffix -itia, and García de…
aludir
It is borrowed from Latin allūdō (“to play or sport with; to jest; to allude”), a learned word, spelt ⟨alludir⟩ until the 19th century. The Latin verb is formed from ad- and lūdō (“to play”)…
alugar
It is inherited from Latin allocō (“to place”), written Old Galician-Portuguese alugar in the oldest texts. Nascentes explains that the Portuguese verb took on both Latin senses, “to let out” and…
alumiar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *allūminō (“to light, kindle”), written Old Galician-Portuguese alumẽar in the oldest texts. The REW and Machado explain the Vulgar Latin verb as a remodelling of…
alvo
It is inherited from Latin albus (“white”), written Old Galician-Portuguese aluo and Old Galician-Portuguese aluuo in the 14th century. Houaiss treats the noun “white colour, white of the eye” as a…
alvor
It is inherited from Latin albor (“whiteness”), from albus (“white”) with the noun suffix -or. Machado calls the Latin noun Late Latin, with the senses “whiteness” and “white of an egg”. Wiktionary…
amante
It is borrowed from Latin amāns (“loving”), the present participle of amō (“to love”), recorded from the 14th century. Nascentes counts it among the learned words. The same Latin participle is…
amar
It is inherited from Latin amō (“to love”), written Old Galician-Portuguese amar in the oldest texts. The same Latin verb is Galician amar, Spanish amar, Catalan amar, Italian amare and French…
amarelo
It is inherited from Medieval Latin amārellus (“yellowish, pale”), a word of the Latin of the Iberian Peninsula, written Old Galician-Portuguese amarelo in the oldest texts. The Latin word is a…
amargar
It is inherited from Late Latin amārico (“to make bitter”), formed in Latin from amārus (“bitter”). Wiktionary analyses the Latin verb as the adjective with the verb suffix -icō, and notes that it…
amargo
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *amaricus (“bitter”), a form of the Latin of Hispania built on amārus (“bitter”). Machado notes that Spanish amargo and Catalan amarg (also amarch) make it unlikely…
amassar
It is formed from Portuguese a- + massa + -ar. Machado allows that it may come straight from a Late Latin verb massare of Hispania, found in the Latin version of Oribasius. The Spanish cognate is…
ambos
It is inherited from Latin ambō (“both”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ambos in the oldest texts. Cunha calls the Latin word an old dual. The same Latin word is Galician ambos and Spanish ambos…
ameaça
It is inherited from Latin minācia (“threat”), with the feminine article fused to the noun: the older form is Old Galician-Portuguese meaça. The glossary of the Crónica Geral rejects the idea of a…
ameaçar
It is formed from Portuguese ameaça + -ar. Wiktionary also allows a Vulgar Latin verb *admināciō (“to threaten”), built on *mināciō. The noun ameaça, of the 13th century in its older form Old…
amêndoa
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *amyndula, a popular form of Latin amygdala (“almond”), which is from Ancient Greek ἀμυγδάλη (amugdálē, “almond”). Machado notes that the vulgar form is recorded in…
amigo
It is inherited from Latin amīcus (“friend; friendly”), written Old Galician-Portuguese amigo in the oldest texts. The Latin word was both a noun, “friend, confidant, protector, ally”, and an…
amizade
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *amīcitās (“friendship”), not the classical Latin amīcitia, written Old Galician-Portuguese amizade in the oldest texts. The Vulgar Latin noun is formed from amīcus…
amor
It is inherited from Latin amor (“love, affection, desire”), already written Old Galician-Portuguese amor in the troubadour songs of the 13th century. The same Latin word is Galician amor, Spanish…
amora
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin mōra (“mulberry”), which Houaiss cites from the Mulomedicina Chironis, from Latin mōrum (“black mulberry”). The Latin neuter plural was taken as a feminine…
amoroso
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *amōrōsus, from Latin amor (“love”) and the suffix -ōsus. Houaiss and the DLP analyse it within Portuguese as amor with the suffix -oso. The same Latin form gave…
anão
It is inherited from Latin nānus (“dwarf”), with a prothetic ⟨a-⟩, first written Old Galician-Portuguese naão. Nascentes and the first Aurélio call the ⟨a-⟩ a late addition. Vieira (1871) explained…
anca
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *hanca (“hip”), a word of Germanic origin that replaced Latin coxa (“hip”), according to Houaiss, Machado and Wiktionary. Machado and Corominas name the source as…
ancho
It is inherited from Latin amplus (“large, wide, spacious”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ancho from 1257 and also Old Galician-Portuguese amcho in the 15th century. Houaiss and Machado call it…
andar
It is written Old Galician-Portuguese andar in the oldest texts, and Latin charters of the 11th century already have it as inherited from Medieval Latin andāre. Its origin is disputed. Cunha…
angélico
It is borrowed from Late Latin angelicus (“angelic”), a learned word. The Latin adjective renders Ancient Greek ἀγγελικός (angelikós, “of a messenger”), formed from ἄγγελος (ángelos, “messenger”)…
anil
1. The word for indigo is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic النيل (anníl), from Arabic نيل (nīl), with the Arabic article. The Arabic word came from Persian نیل (nil, “indigo”), through Middle…
animal
It is borrowed from Latin animal (“living being, animal”), a learned word; the adjective is from animālis (“living, animate”). For the biological sense Houaiss names the scientific Latin name of the…
anjo
It is inherited from Late Latin angelus (“messenger of God, angel”), written Old Galician-Portuguese angeo in the oldest texts, and the Latin word is from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos…
ano
It is inherited from Latin annus (“year”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ano in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician ano, Spanish año, Catalan any, French an, Italian anno and…
antes
It is inherited from Latin ante (“before, in front of”), written Old Galician-Portuguese antes and Old Galician-Portuguese ante in the oldest texts. The final -s was added on the model of other…
antigo
It is inherited from Latin antīquus (“former, old”), written Old Galician-Portuguese antigo in the oldest texts. Latin manuscripts also have a masculine antīcus beside the feminine in -qua, and the…
anular
1. The word for “to annul” is borrowed from Late Latin annullō (“to reduce to nothing, annihilate”), a verb of Church Latin. The Latin verb is formed on nullus (“no, none”) with the prefix ad-, and…
anunciação
It is borrowed from Late Latin annūntiātiō (“announcement”), a learned or semi-learned word. The Latin noun is formed from annūntiō (“to announce”) with the suffix -tiō, and belongs to Christian and…
anunciar
It is inherited from Latin annūntiō (“to announce, make known”), written Old Galician-Portuguese anuciar in 1344. Cunha dates the word to the 14th century. Nascentes describes it as a semi-learned…
aparar
According to Houaiss, Machado and the DLP it is inherited from Latin apparō (“to prepare, make ready”), a compound of ad- and parō (“to prepare, provide”). The Romance verbs of this Latin word are…
aparecer
It is inherited from Late Latin appārēscō (“to begin to appear”), written Old Galician-Portuguese aparecer in the oldest texts. The Late Latin verb is the inchoative of Latin appāreō (“to be…
aparelhar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *appariculō (“to prepare”), a derivative of Latin apparō (“to prepare, make ready, provide”). Houaiss calls the Latin verb Late Latin; Wiktionary also posits the…
apor
It is inherited from Latin appōnō (“to place near, set beside; to add”), written Old Galician-Portuguese apõer in the oldest texts, also without the tilde. Nascentes considers the word semi-learned…
apreciar
It is borrowed from Late Latin appretiō (“to value, set a price on”), recorded in Portuguese from 1583. Houaiss calls the Latin verb imperial; the Academia's dictionary calls it Late Latin. Cunha's…
aprender
It is inherited from Latin apprendo (“to grasp, seize”), the contracted form of apprehendo, written Old Galician-Portuguese aprender in the oldest texts. The Latin verb is formed from ad- and…
aprovar
It is inherited from Latin approbō (“to approve, commend; to prove”). Nascentes takes it as a semi-learned word. The Latin verb is formed from ad- (“to, towards”) and probō (“to test; to approve”)…
aquecer
Houaiss takes it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *adcalēscō, from calēscō (“to begin to grow warm”), the inchoative of caleō (“to be hot”). Cunha, Machado and the DLP derive it straight from the…
aquele
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum ille (“look, that one”), from the Latin particle eccum (“here he is”) and the pronoun ille (“that”). Houaiss writes the Vulgar Latin form *accuille, with a…
aqui
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum hīc, written Old Galician-Portuguese aqui in the oldest texts: a compound of the emphatic particle eccum (“here he is!”) and hīc (“here”). Houaiss writes the…
ar
It is inherited from Latin āēr (“air”), which is from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr, “mist; air”). The oldest texts write Old Galician-Portuguese aire, Old Galician-Portuguese aere and Old…
arador
It is inherited from Latin arātor (“ploughman; farmer”), the agent noun of arō (“to plough”). The Latin /t/ between vowels was voiced to /d/. The same Latin word is Spanish arador, Catalan arador…
aranha
It is inherited from Latin arānea (“spider; cobweb”), written Old Galician-Portuguese aranna in the oldest texts. Latin also had a masculine arāneus. The same Latin word is Galician araña, Spanish…
arar
It is inherited from Latin arō (“to plough”), written Old Galician-Portuguese arar in the oldest texts. The same Latin verb is Galician arar, Spanish arar, Italian arare, Old French arer and…
arca
It is inherited from Latin arca (“chest, box, coffer”), written Old Galician-Portuguese arca and Old Galician-Portuguese archa in the oldest texts. Wiktionary describes the Old Galician-Portuguese…
arco
It is inherited from Latin arcus (“bow; arch”), written Old Galician-Portuguese arco in the oldest texts. Houaiss and Machado also give the Latin variant arquus, and Houaiss notes that from early on…
arder
It is inherited from Latin ārdeō (“to burn, be on fire”), written Old Galician-Portuguese arder in the oldest texts. The same Latin verb is Galician arder, Spanish arder, Italian ardere, French…