Portuguese words from Latin
2023 Portuguese words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 3).
ardor
It is inherited from Latin ardor (“burning, heat; passion”), from ardeō (“to burn”) with the noun suffix -or. Wiktionary takes it as inherited through the old language, while Nascentes calls it a…
areia
It is inherited from Latin arēna (“sand”), written Old Galician-Portuguese arẽa in the oldest texts. The Latin -n- between vowels was lost, as Vieira noted in 1871, comparing ceia and veia. The same…
argila
It is borrowed from Latin argilla (“potter's clay”), which is from Ancient Greek ἄργιλλος (árgillos, “white clay, potter's earth”). The 15th-century form Old Galician-Portuguese arzila has a ⟨z⟩…
argumento
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin argūmentum (“proof, evidence, argument”), recorded from the 14th century. Beside it, 14th- and 15th-century texts have the forms Old…
arma
It is inherited from Latin arma (“arms, weapons”), written Old Galician-Portuguese arma in the oldest texts. In classical Latin the word was a neuter plural, and, as happened with other such…
armadura
It is inherited from Latin armātūra (“armament, equipment; troops in arms”), written Old Galician-Portuguese armadura in the oldest texts. The Latin noun is formed from armō (“to arm”) with the…
armar
It is inherited from Latin armō (“to arm, equip”), written Old Galician-Portuguese armar in the oldest texts. Machado gives the Latin verb the senses “arm”, “fit out a ship”, “arm a fortress” and…
armário
It is borrowed from Latin armārium (“cupboard, chest”). Nascentes and Wiktionary call it a learned word, and Machado explains the present form, recorded from 1556, as a learned restoration of the…
arribar
According to Houaiss, Cunha and the DLP it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *arripō (“to reach the bank”), formed on Latin rīpa (“riverbank”), the source of riba. Wiktionary gives the Medieval Latin…
arroio
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *arrugium, a Hispanic Latin masculine beside arrugia (“mine gallery”). Latin charters from the north-west write the word arrugium, arrogio and aroio from the 10th…
arrotar
It is inherited from Latin ēructō (“to belch up”), according to Machado, Nascentes, the Academia's dictionary and Wiktionary. Houaiss calls the origin controversial: besides the Latin compound, he…
arruda
It is inherited from Latin rūta (“rue”), with an initial vowel that most sources explain as the definite article a grown onto the noun. Aurélio instead derives it from Latin through Arabic, whose…
arte
It is inherited from Latin ars (“skill, craft, art”), recorded in Portuguese from the 13th century. Nascentes calls it a learned word, taken over from Latin by the written language. The same Latin…
artelho
It is inherited from Latin articulus (“joint, knuckle”), through *articlus, written Old Galician-Portuguese artelho in the old language. Nascentes calls it semi-learned. Vieira compared the change…
artigo
It is borrowed from Latin articulus (“joint; limb; part, division; article (in grammar)”), a semi-learned borrowing first written Old Galician-Portuguese artigoo. Machado and Cunha trace the form…
árvore
It is inherited from Latin arbor (“tree”), written Old Galician-Portuguese arvor, Old Galician-Portuguese arvore and Old Galician-Portuguese arvol in the oldest texts. Like Logudorese, Portuguese…
asa
It is inherited from Latin ānsa (“handle of a vessel”), first written Old Galician-Portuguese asaa. The Latin /n/ before /s/ had already been lost in popular speech: the Appendix Probi condemns the…
asno
It is inherited from Latin asinus (“ass, donkey”), written Old Galician-Portuguese asno in the oldest texts. The unstressed vowel of the second syllable was lost. The same Latin word is Galician…
aspecto
It is borrowed from Latin aspectus (“the act of looking; sight; appearance”), a learned word. Nascentes says that it came through the old form Old Galician-Portuguese aspeito, which was then remade…
áspero
It is inherited from Latin asper (“rough, harsh”). The route is disputed. Nascentes and Wiktionary take it as a learned word. Corominas grants that the Spanish and Portuguese words, unlike the…
assegurar
It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *assēcūrō (“to make safe”), a verb formed on Latin sēcūrus (“free from care, safe”). Houaiss notes that the verb is recorded in Medieval Latin around the…
assim
It is inherited from Latin sīc (“thus, so”) with a prefixed ⟨a-⟩, written Old Galician-Portuguese assi in the oldest texts. Houaiss, Cunha, Nascentes and Aurélio take the ⟨a-⟩ to be the preposition…
assistente
It is borrowed from Latin assistēns (“standing by, present”), the present participle of assistō (“to stand by, be present, assist in court”). Nascentes takes it from the Latin spelling adsistēns by…
assumir
It is borrowed from Latin assūmō (“to take up, take to oneself”), first recorded in 1690. Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word. The Latin verb is formed from ad- and sūmō (“to take”). Wiktionary…
atenção
It is borrowed from Latin attentiō (“application of the mind, attention”). Nascentes calls it semi-learned. Houaiss dates it to the 15th century, Cunha to the 16th. The Latin noun is formed from…
atender
It is inherited from Latin attendō (“to stretch towards; to pay attention”), written Old Galician-Portuguese atender in the oldest texts. Nascentes thinks it came down by a semi-learned route. The…
atento
It is borrowed from Latin attentus (“attentive, heedful”), the past participle of attendō (“to stretch towards; to pay attention”). Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing and Nascentes a…
ater
It is inherited from Latin attineō (“to hold near, keep back, detain”), also written adtineō, formed from ad- and teneō (“to hold”). The Latin verb also meant “to concern, belong to”. The same Latin…
atingir
It is borrowed from Latin attingō (“to touch, reach”), from ad- and tangō (“to touch”). Nascentes calls it semi-learned. The Latin verb lives on in Italian attingere and Romanian atinge, while a…
atividade
It is borrowed from Latin āctīvitās (“active meaning; activity”), first recorded in 1612 and spelt ⟨actividade⟩. Wiktionary takes it from Medieval Latin, and Nascentes calls it semi-learned. Machado…
átomo
It is borrowed from Latin atomus (“indivisible; an atom”), a learned word, from Ancient Greek ἄτομος (átomos, “uncut, indivisible”). Houaiss notes that the Latin adjective was used as a noun as a…
ator
It is borrowed from Latin āctor (“one who drives or does; agent; plaintiff; performer”). Nascentes calls it semi-learned, and Wiktionary has it from Old Galician-Portuguese abtor, a semi-learned…
atrair
It is borrowed from Latin attrahō (“to draw towards oneself”), with a change of conjugation from the Latin third conjugation to the Portuguese verbs in -ir. Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing…
atrás
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ad trans (“to the far side”), written Old Galician-Portuguese atras in the oldest texts. Houaiss, Machado and Aurélio describe it instead as the preposition a…
através
It is formed from Portuguese a + través (“slant, crosswise direction”). The noun is from Latin trānsversus (“lying across, oblique”), the participle of trānsvertō (“to turn across”). Houaiss…
atravessar
According to Houaiss it is inherited from Late Latin trānsversō (“to cross”) with the prefix ad-. Wiktionary takes it from the Late Latin verb without the prefix. The DLP also derives it from the…
atrever
It is inherited from Latin attribuō (“to assign, attribute”) according to Machado, Wiktionary, Michaelis, Priberam and Nascentes (after Diez, A. Coelho and Cornu), written Old Galician-Portuguese…
atualidade
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin actuālitās, a word that Cunha attributes to Duns Scotus, derived from actuālis (“active, practical”). Houaiss thinks the sense “present time” probably came under…
aumentar
It is borrowed from Late Latin augmentō (“to increase”), first recorded in the 14th century. Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing and Nascentes a semi-learned one. The Late Latin verb is formed…
austeridade
It is borrowed from Latin austēritās, meaning both “sourness” and “severity”. Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word. The Latin noun is formed from austērus (“sour; severe”) with the suffix -tās…
austero
It is borrowed from Latin austērus (“harsh, sour; severe”), a learned word. The Latin adjective is from Ancient Greek αὐστηρός (austērós), which was said of a harsh, dry or bitter taste, of water…
autoridade
It is borrowed from Latin auctōritās (“guarantee; influence, authority”), recorded in Galician-Portuguese from 1262. Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word. Its oldest forms vary widely, from Old…
autorizar
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin auctōrizō (“to confirm”), the origin that most authors give, as Houaiss puts it. Machado calls the Latin verb Late Latin. Houaiss dates the first record to 1360…
ave
1. The word for the bird is inherited from Latin avis (“bird”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ave in the oldest texts. Houaiss adds that the zoological sense comes directly from the scientific…
aveia
It is inherited from Latin avēna (“oats; straw; shepherd's pipe”), written Old Galician-Portuguese avẽa and Old Galician-Portuguese auea in the oldest texts. The Latin /n/ between vowels was lost…
avelã
It is inherited from Latin abellāna (“hazelnut”), an adjective used as a noun from the phrase “nut of Abella”, with nux (“nut”) understood; Abella was a town in Campania. The Latin word was also…
aventura
It is probably borrowed from Old French aventure (“what is to happen to someone”), the view of Houaiss, Cunha, Machado and the Porto dictionary. The French word is from Vulgar Latin *adventūra, the…
avir
It is inherited from Latin adveniō (“to come to, arrive”), formed from ad- and veniō (“to come”), written Old Galician-Portuguese aviir in the cantigas. The learned doublet of the same Latin verb is…
avô
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *aviolus (“grandfather”), written Old Galician-Portuguese avoo in the oldest texts. Houaiss and Cunha explain the Vulgar Latin masculine as made from the feminine…
baga
It is inherited from Latin bāca (“berry, small fruit”), also written bacca. Vieira explains the /ɡ/ as the voicing of the Latin /k/, as in lacus and lago. The same Latin word is Galician baga…
bailar
In Houaiss's view it is inherited from Late Latin ballō (“to dance”), which he links to Ancient Greek πάλλω (pállō, “to leap, shake”), and notes that the ⟨i⟩ of the Ibero-Romance forms is…
bainha
It is inherited from Latin vāgīna (“sheath, scabbard”), written Old Galician-Portuguese baynha in the oldest texts and Old Galician-Portuguese beyna in the Crónica Geral. Cunha also records Old…
baixar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *bassiō (“to lower”), written Old Galician-Portuguese baixar in the oldest texts. Houaiss and Cunha connect the verb with the Late Latin adjective bassus (“short…
baixo
It is inherited from Late Latin bassus (“stout, low”), written Old Galician-Portuguese baixo and Old Galician-Portuguese bayxo in the oldest texts. The Latin adjective is known only from glosses and…
balança
It is borrowed from Spanish balanza (“balance, scales”), from Vulgar Latin *bilancia, derived from Late Latin bilanx (“having two scale-pans”). Machado takes the Spanish origin as proved by the ⟨l⟩…
banhar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *baneō, from balneō (“to bathe”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bannar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria. Cunha gives the Latin verb directly as the source. Aurélio…
barba
It is inherited from Latin barba (“beard”), written Old Galician-Portuguese barva and Old Galician-Portuguese barba in the oldest texts. Nascentes explains the return of ⟨b⟩ in the middle of the…
barbado
It is inherited from Latin barbātus (“bearded”), written Old Galician-Portuguese barvado in the 13th century. The Latin adjective is formed from barba (“beard”) with the suffix -ātus. Machado and…
barca
It is inherited from Late Latin barca (“small boat”), written Old Galician-Portuguese barca in the oldest texts. The Latin word is first recorded in an inscription from the Algarve, which Corominas…
barra
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *barra (“crossbar, bar for closing a door”). Houaiss gives the Latin word a pre-Roman base from Gaulish *barro (“end, extremity”), and Aurélio and Michaelis call…