Portuguese words from Latin
2023 Portuguese words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 4).
barro
Its origin is disputed. Houaiss takes it to be inherited from Vulgar Latin *barrum (“clay, mud”), a pre-Roman base, perhaps related to the stems of barranco. Cunha, Machado, the Aurélio and…
base
It is borrowed from Latin basis (“base, pedestal”), a learned word, which is from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis, “a stepping; step, foot; base, pedestal”). Nascentes and Aurélio give the Greek sense as…
bastão
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *basto (“a piece of stick used as a support”) (accusative *bastōnem), written Old Galician-Portuguese baston in the oldest texts. Machado and the DLP think it came…
bastar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *bastō (“to carry, bear; to suffice”), which Houaiss, Aurélio and Corominas trace to Ancient Greek βαστάζω (bastázō, “to lift and carry a burden”). Cunha, the DLP…
bater
It is inherited from Latin battō (“to beat”), the later form of battuō (“to beat, pound; to fence”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bater in the oldest texts. Houaiss, Cunha and Machado treat the…
bêbado
It is inherited from Late Latin bibitus (“drunk; given to drinking”), the past participle of bibō (“to drink”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bevedo in the 13th century. Houaiss and the original…
bebedor
It is inherited from Latin bibitor (“drinker”), first written Old Galician-Portuguese bevedor in the 14th century. The Latin noun is formed on bibō (“to drink”) and meant “a heavy drinker”…
beber
It is inherited from Latin bibō (“to drink”), written Old Galician-Portuguese beber and Old Galician-Portuguese bever in the oldest texts. Machado thinks the modern form with -b- may have been…
beijar
It is inherited from Latin bāsiō (“to kiss”), written Old Galician-Portuguese beijar and Old Galician-Portuguese beyjar in the oldest texts. In the 15th century the infinitive was also used as a…
beijo
It is inherited from Latin bāsium (“kiss”), through *baisu, and is written Old Galician-Portuguese beijo in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician beixo, Spanish beso, Catalan bes…
belo
It is inherited from Latin bellus (“pretty, charming”), first recorded as the proclitic Old Galician-Portuguese bel. The Reichenau glosses of the 8th or 9th century already explain pulchra…
bem
It is inherited from Latin bene (“well”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ben in the oldest texts. The Latin adverb belongs to bonus (“good”), the source of bom; the noun “good, property” is the…
bendizer
It is borrowed from Latin benedīcō (“to speak well of; to bless”), a compound of bene (“well”) and dīcō (“to say”). The DLP gives the source as Church Latin. Caldas Aulete's original dictionary and…
benzer
It is inherited from Latin benedīcō (“to speak well of; to bless”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bẽeizer in the oldest texts and Old Galician-Portuguese beenzer in the 14th century. Nascentes…
bestial
It is borrowed from Late Latin bēstiālis (“of a beast, brutal”), a learned word. The Latin adjective is formed from bēstia (“beast, animal”) and -ālis. The popular outcomes of the Latin noun are…
betume
According to Wiktionary and Machado it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *bittūmen, from Latin bitūmen (“pitch, asphalt”). Houaiss instead calls it a learned word taken from the Latin. Cunha dates it…
bexiga
It is inherited from Latin vessīca (“bladder”), a Vulgar Latin variant of classical vēsīca. Nascentes finds the double ⟨ss⟩ not well explained. He attributes the initial ⟨b-⟩ to the confusion of ⟨b⟩…
bicho
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *bīstius, a masculine form of Latin bēstia (“beast, animal”). Corominas notes that a masculine bestius is found in writers of the 3rd and 4th centuries such as…
bico
It is inherited from Latin beccus (“beak, especially a cock's”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bico in the oldest texts. The Latin word is Gaulish: Suetonius records it as the nickname Becco of…
bispo
It is inherited from Latin episcopus (“overseer; bishop”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bispo in the oldest texts. The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “overseer…
boca
It is inherited from Latin bucca (“cheek; mouth”), written Old Galician-Portuguese boca in the oldest texts. The same Latin word is Galician boca, Spanish boca, Catalan boca, French bouche, Italian…
bocado
It is formed from Portuguese boca + -ado, “what fills the mouth”, and was already written Old Galician-Portuguese bocado in the oldest texts. Machado derives it from bocada “what one takes with the…
boi
It is inherited from Latin bōs (“ox, cow”), written Old Galician-Portuguese boi in the oldest texts. It continues the accusative of the Latin noun, probably through a popular form *boe, with the /v/…
boieiro
According to Houaiss, Machado and the Porto dictionary, it is inherited from Latin boārius (“of cattle”), also written bovārius, the adjective of bōs (“ox”). In Medieval Latin both forms were also…
bom
It is inherited from Latin bonus (“good”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bõo in the oldest texts. The old form was a word of two syllables, and Vieira explains the loss of the Latin /n/ between…
bonança
Houaiss takes it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *bonacia, an alteration of Latin malacia (“dead calm at sea”). The Latin noun had been mistaken for a derivative of malus (“bad”) and was remade with…
bondade
It is inherited from Latin bonitās (“goodness, good quality”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bondade in the oldest texts. The Latin noun is formed from bonus (“good”) with the suffix -tās. Houaiss…
borra
1. The word for coarse fibre and dregs is inherited from Latin burra (“coarse woollen cloth”). In Late Latin the noun named a shaggy garment, and Ausonius used the plural for trifles and nonsense…
botânico
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin botanicus, from Ancient Greek βοτανικός (botanikós, “of herbs”). Cunha calls the Latin word Late Latin, and Houaiss, Machado and Aurélio take the Portuguese word…
braçal
It is formed from Portuguese braço + -al, as Houaiss, Aurélio and Aulete explain it. Machado, the DLP and Porto Editora derive it instead from Latin brachiālis (“of the arm”), and Wiktionary gives…
braço
It is inherited from Latin bracchium (“arm”), also spelt brāchium, written Old Galician-Portuguese braço in the oldest texts. The Latin word is from Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhíōn, “arm”). This…
brando
It is inherited from Latin blandus (“charming, flattering”), written Old Galician-Portuguese brando and Old Galician-Portuguese blando in the oldest texts. Meyer-Lübke considered the Spanish and…
breve
It is borrowed from Latin brevis (“short”), recorded from the 14th century. Wiktionary takes it as a borrowing because an inherited form would show a different vowel, as Spanish breve would then…
briza
It is borrowed from New Latin Briza, the scientific name of the genus (1735), from Ancient Greek βρίζα (bríza, “rye”). Houaiss glosses the Greek word as a kind of wheat or rye; the LSJ has it for…
bruma
It is borrowed from Latin brūma (“winter solstice, winter”). Houaiss and Cunha date it to the 16th century, and Bluteau (1712–1728) still called it a Latin word; Wiktionary instead treats it as…
bruto
It is borrowed from Latin brūtus (“heavy; dull, stupid”), taken by the learned route according to Machado, and written Old Galician-Portuguese bruto in the 14th century. The REW notes that the word…
bulir
It is inherited from Latin bulliō (“to bubble, boil”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bolir and Old Galician-Portuguese bulir in the oldest texts. The Latin verb is formed from bulla (“bubble”)…
burrico
It is inherited from Latin burricus (“small horse”), with the stress moved onto the ending, a shift helped by the Portuguese suffix -ico. The DCECH explains both this word and Spanish borrico from…
buxo
It is inherited from Latin buxus (“box tree”), written Old Galician-Portuguese buxo in the oldest texts. The botanical genus name, fixed in 1735, is the same Latin word. The same Latin word is…
cá
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum hāc (“here, this way”), from Latin eccum (“here he is”), used as an emphatic particle, and hāc (“this way”). Houaiss traces it through reconstructed…
cabana
It is inherited from Late Latin capanna (“hut”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cabana in the oldest texts. Houaiss calls the Late Latin word of doubtful origin, and Wiktionary also records the…
cabeça
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin capitia (“head”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cabeça in the oldest texts. The word replaced classical Latin caput across Hispania, and in Corsican and old…
cabelo
It is inherited from Latin capillus (“hair of the head”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cabelo and Old Galician-Portuguese cabello in the oldest texts. Houaiss notes that Varro took the Latin word…
cabeludo
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *capillūtus (“hairy”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cabeludo in the oldest texts. Houaiss, Aurélio, the DLP and Priberam analyse it instead as a Portuguese…
caber
It is inherited from Latin capiō (“to take, seize; to hold, contain”), written Old Galician-Portuguese caber in the oldest texts. The Portuguese sense “to have room, to fit” continues the Latin “to…
cabido
It is inherited from Latin capitulum (“chapter”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cabidoo in the oldest texts. In classical Latin the word meant “a little head”, a diminutive formed from caput…
cabra
It is inherited from Latin capra (“she-goat”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cabra in the oldest texts. The Latin noun is the feminine of caper (“he-goat”). Houaiss notes that the zoological sense…
cabreiro
It is inherited from Latin caprārius (“goatherd; of goats”), which Houaiss, Aulete, the DLP and Aurélio give as the source. Cunha also derives it from the Latin word. By surface analysis it is cabra…
cabresto
It is inherited from Latin capistrum (“halter, muzzle”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cabresto and Old Galician-Portuguese cabestro in the oldest texts. The ⟨r⟩ of the Latin second syllable moved…
caçador
It is formed from Portuguese caçar + -dor, already written Old Galician-Portuguese caçador in the oldest texts. Houaiss analyses it as the stem of the past participle caçado with the suffix -or. The…
caçar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *captiō (“to hunt, catch”), written Old Galician-Portuguese caçar in the oldest texts. Houaiss, Cunha and the DLP derive the Vulgar Latin verb from classical captō…
cada
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin cata (“each, by”), which is from Ancient Greek κατά (katá, “down; along; according to”). The Greek preposition was used in phrases with a distributive sense, such…
cadáver
It is borrowed from Latin cadāver (“dead body”), recorded from the 16th century. It is the Latin nominative, not the accusative from which most Portuguese nouns come. The Latin word was also…
cadeia
It is inherited from Latin catēna (“chain”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cadea (with the nasal vowel, cadẽa) in the oldest texts. The Latin word was used mostly in the plural, in literal and…
cadela
It is inherited from Latin catella (“little bitch, lapdog”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cadela in the cantigas. The Latin word is the feminine of catellus (“puppy, young dog”), itself a…
caderno
It is inherited from Latin quaternus (“fourfold”), written Old Galician-Portuguese caderno in the oldest texts. Houaiss and Cunha explain it as the singular of the distributive quaternī (“four at a…
cagar
It is inherited from Latin cacō (“to defecate”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cagar in the oldest texts. Cunha calls the Latin verb a word of expressive formation. The same Latin verb is Galician…
cair
It is inherited from Late Latin cadēre, the Late Latin form of Latin cadō (“to fall”) moved to the second conjugation, written Old Galician-Portuguese caer in the oldest texts. The Latin /d/ between…
cal
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin cals (“lime”), the form of Latin calx (“lime, limestone”) that Varro already writes, and appears as Old Galician-Portuguese cal in the oldest texts. Houaiss adds…
calça
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *calcea (“stocking”), from Latin calceus (“shoe”), written Old Galician-Portuguese calça in the oldest texts. Wiktionary records the Latin form in Medieval Latin…