Portuguese words from Latin
2023 Portuguese words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 21).
nascer
It is inherited from Latin *nascere (“to be born”), the Vulgar Latin active infinitive that replaced the infinitive of the classical deponent verb. It was written Old Galician-Portuguese nacer in…
natividade
It is inherited from Latin nātīvitās (“birth”), a semi-learned word written Old Galician-Portuguese navidade in the 13th century and with the Latin ⟨t⟩ restored from the 15th. Nascentes calls it…
natural
It is borrowed from Latin nātūrālis (“by birth; natural”), recorded from the 13th century and written Old Galician-Portuguese natural in the oldest texts. Nascentes counts it among the learned…
nave
It is inherited from Latin nāvis (“ship”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nave in the oldest texts. Houaiss and Nascentes note that in later Latin the word gave way to nāvigium (“vessel”), the…
navegar
It is inherited from Latin nāvigō (“to sail”), a semi-learned word in Nascentes's view. The Latin verb is formed from nāvis (“ship”) and the root of agō (“to drive”). The same Latin verb is Galician…
navio
It is inherited from Latin nāvigium (“vessel, boat”), written Old Galician-Portuguese navio in the oldest texts. Nascentes explains the stressed /i/ by metaphony, following Nunes. The same Latin…
necessário
It is borrowed from Latin necessārius (“unavoidable, indispensable”), formed from necesse (“necessary”) with the suffix -ārius. Nascentes calls it a learned word. The Latin adjective was also a…
necessitar
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin necessitō (“to compel, constrain”), a learned word. Du Cange notes that the Medieval Latin verb was often used by the Schoolmen. The DLP, Michaelis and DELPo…
negar
It is inherited from Latin negō (“to say no, deny, refuse”), written Old Galician-Portuguese negar in the oldest texts. The same Latin verb is Galician negar, Spanish negar, Catalan negar, Occitan…
negligente
It is borrowed from Latin negligēns (“careless, heedless”), a variant of neglegēns, the present participle of neglegō (“to disregard, neglect”). Nascentes calls it a learned word. The popular forms…
negócio
It is borrowed from Latin negōtium (“business, occupation, affair”), a learned word. Spanish negocio is likewise taken from Latin, in 1220–1250. Popular descendants of the Latin noun survive in…
negro
It is inherited from Latin niger (“black, dark”), written Old Galician-Portuguese negro in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Spanish negro, Catalan negre, French noir, Italian nero and…
nem
It is inherited from Latin nec (“and not, nor”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nen and Old Galician-Portuguese ne in the oldest texts. Houaiss explains the form by the loss of the final /k/ and…
nenhum
It is inherited from Late Latin nec ūnus (“not even one”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nen ũu and later Old Galician-Portuguese nin ũu in the oldest texts. Wiktionary adds that the form with /ɲ/…
nervo
It is inherited from Latin nervus (“sinew, tendon; nerve”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nervo and Old Galician-Portuguese nervio in the 13th century. This variant points to Vulgar Latin…
nêspera
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nespira (“medlar”). Houaiss explains this form as an alteration of the classical Latin nespila, itself a dissimilated form of mespilum (“medlar”) that changed…
nevar
Cunha and Wiktionary take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin nivō (“to snow”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nevar and Old Galician-Portuguese neuar in the old texts; Cunha and the REW cite the…
neve
It is inherited from Latin nix (“snow”), through a Vulgar Latin accusative ⟨*nevem⟩ altered from classical ⟨nivem⟩, written Old Galician-Portuguese neve in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is…
névoa
It is inherited from Latin nebula (“mist, fog”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nevoa and Old Galician-Portuguese neuoa in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician néboa, Spanish niebla…
ninho
It is inherited from Latin nīdus (“nest”). The Latin /d/ between vowels was lost, giving Old Galician-Portuguese *nio; the /i/ then became nasal and the nasal resonance turned into the palatal /ɲ/…
nó
It is inherited from Latin nōdus (“knot”), written Old Galician-Portuguese noo in the 14th century; the modern form is recorded from the 15th, and Houaiss's first record is the plural Old…
nobre
It is inherited from Latin nōbilis (“known; famous; of high birth”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nobre and Old Galician-Portuguese noble in the oldest texts. Nascentes derives it from the…
nogueira
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nucāria, an adjective understood with arbor (“tree”), “the nut tree”. Houaiss calls the form Medieval Latin, Nascentes and Aurélio Vulgar Latin, and Wiktionary…
noite
It is inherited from Latin nox (“night”), from its accusative form, written Old Galician-Portuguese noite and Old Galician-Portuguese noyte in the oldest texts. Latin ⟨ct⟩ became Portuguese /jt/, as…
noivo
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *novius (“newly married”), from Latin novus (“new”), in the view of the REW, García de Diego, Wiktionary, the DLP and Aurélio. The oldest texts write Old…
nome
It is inherited from Latin nōmen (“name”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nome in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician nome, Spanish nombre, Catalan nom, French nom, Italian nome and…
nomear
It is inherited from Latin nōminō (“to name”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nomẽar in the oldest texts. Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word, while Aurélio takes it as popular. The learned…
nora
1. The word for the daughter-in-law is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nŏra, written Old Galician-Portuguese nora in the oldest texts, which replaced Latin nurus. Houaiss starts from a Vulgar Latin…
nós
It is inherited from Latin nōs (“we, us”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nos in the oldest texts. Cunha and Nascentes take the stressed pronoun from the stressed use of the Latin word, and the…
nosso
It is inherited from Latin noster (“our”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nosso and Old Galician-Portuguese nostro in the oldest texts. Houaiss, following Edwin Williams, starts from Vulgar Latin…
notar
It is borrowed from Latin notō (“to mark; to note down; to observe”), recorded as Old Galician-Portuguese notar from 1260. The Latin verb is formed from nota (“mark, sign”). The same Latin verb is…
notário
It is borrowed from Late Latin notārius (“scribe, clerk, secretary”), written Old Galician-Portuguese notario in the oldest texts. Nascentes calls it a learned word. The medieval forms Old…
notícia
It is borrowed from Latin nōtitia (“being known; acquaintance, knowledge”), first recorded as Old Galician-Portuguese noticia in a document of 1394. Nascentes counts it as semi-learned. An inherited…
notificar
It is borrowed from Latin nōtificō (“to make known”), a learned word recorded from the 15th century. Vieira derived it from French notifier instead. The French verb was itself taken in 1314 from the…
notoriedade
It is formed from Portuguese notório + -dade, with the stem vowel changed from -o to -e on the Latin pattern of próprio and propriedade. Aurélio, Aulete, the DLP and Wikcionário derive it instead…
nove
It is inherited from Latin novem (“nine”), with the same form in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician nove, Spanish nueve, Catalan nou, French neuf, Italian nove, Romanian nouă and…
novembro
It is inherited from Late Latin *novembrius, for Latin november (“November”), with a change of declension, written Old Galician-Portuguese novembro and Old Galician-Portuguese novenbro in the oldest…
noventa
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nōvāgintā, written Old Galician-Portuguese noveenta and Old Galician-Portuguese novaenta in the oldest texts. The Vulgar Latin form is an alteration of classical…
noviço
It is borrowed from Late Latin novīcius (“novice”), the masculine of the Latin adjective, “new, recent”, used as a noun; the oldest texts write Old Galician-Portuguese noviço. The Latin adjective is…
novidade
It is inherited from Latin novitās (“newness, novelty”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nouidade in the oldest texts. Nascentes calls it semi-learned. The dates differ: Cunha has the old form from…
novo
It is inherited from Latin novus (“new”), written Old Galician-Portuguese novo in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician novo, Spanish nuevo, Catalan nou, Occitan nòu, French neuf…
noz
It is inherited from Latin nux (“nut”), through a Vulgar Latin form with an open /ɔ/, *nŏce, written Old Galician-Portuguese noze and Old Galician-Portuguese noce in the old language. Nascentes…
nu
It is inherited from Latin nūdus (“naked”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nuu in the oldest texts. García de Diego records the old form in Catalan too, and the modern form in Galician as well as…
número
It is borrowed from Latin numerus (“number”), a learned word that replaced the old popular Old Galician-Portuguese nombro. García de Diego and the REW also treat the Portuguese word, like Spanish…
nunca
It is inherited from Latin numquam (“never”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nunca in the oldest texts. The Latin word, also spelt nunquam, is formed from the negative ne (“not”) and umquam (“at…
núncio
It is borrowed from Latin nūntius (“messenger; message”), the noun of nūntiō (“to announce”). Nascentes calls it semi-learned and a literary word. The DLP instead takes it from the Italian nunzio…
nutrir
It is borrowed from Latin nūtriō (“to suckle, nourish”), a learned form. Wiktionary calls it semi-learned and compares the inherited Old Galician-Portuguese nodrir of the medieval language. Houaiss…
nuvem
It is inherited from Latin nūbēs (“cloud”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nuve in the oldest texts. The final nasal of the word has two explanations. Houaiss follows E. Williams, for whom the…
obediência
It is borrowed from Latin oboedientia (“obedience”), also spelt obēdientia in Latin. Wiktionary notes that the learned form displaced the older Old Galician-Portuguese obedeença, the shape of the…
obediente
It is borrowed from Latin oboediēns (“obedient”), the present participle of oboediō (“to obey”). Nascentes calls it a learned word. The same Latin word gives Spanish obediente. The Latin verb is…
objeto
It is a learned borrowing from Latin, but the sources name different Latin words. According to Cunha and Aurélio it is borrowed from Medieval Latin objectum, the noun of the scholastics. Houaiss…
obra
It is inherited from Latin opera (“effort, work”), written Old Galician-Portuguese obra in the oldest texts. It is the popular doublet of the learned ópera. The same Latin word is Galician obra…
obrar
It is inherited from Late Latin operō (“to work”), the active form of Latin operor (“to be at work”). The learned verb operar is a doublet from the same Latin word. The same Latin verb is Galician…
obreiro
It is inherited from Latin operārius (“labourer; of work”), with the same form in the oldest texts. It is the popular counterpart of the learned operário, taken from the same Latin word. Nascentes…
obrigar
It is inherited from Latin obligō (“to tie up; to bind by a duty”), written Old Galician-Portuguese obligar and later Old Galician-Portuguese obrigar in the oldest texts. Wiktionary considers it a…
observar
It is borrowed from Latin observō (“to watch, heed; to comply with”), first recorded about 1541. The Latin verb is formed from ob- and servō (“to watch over, keep”). Nascentes glossed the Latin verb…
ocupar
It is borrowed from Latin occupō (“to seize, take possession of”), by a semi-learned route, as Nascentes says. The Latin verb is formed from ob- and the root of capiō (“to take, seize”); its…
ode
It is borrowed from Late Latin ode (“lyric song”), also written ōda, which is from Ancient Greek ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”). The Greek noun is the contracted form of ἀοιδή (aoidḗ), from ἀείδω (aeídō, “to…
ódio
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin odium (“hatred, aversion”). The Spanish word odio is learned too, while the inherited outcome survives as Old Catalan oi (“hatred”). The Latin noun is…
odor
It is borrowed from Latin odor (“smell, scent”). Nascentes calls it a learned word, while Wiktionary takes it as inherited and says it displaced the parallel form olor. The two are doublets: the…