TEN BOOKS TO KNOW ETYMOLOGY

Mário Eduardo Viaro(DLCV)

The work of the etymologist requires a constant exercise of research, involving

basically some tasks: (1) the location of the first occurrences of the words
investigated in texts (starting point); (2) the development of hypotheses about how it was
transmission of this word over time (establishment of an etymon); (3) the
eventual reconstruction of undocumented phases based on characteristics
linguistics of the periods that constitute the historical interval between the etymon and the word

investigated (history of the word). In this sense, Etymology assists and is assisted by
History, through Philology, Comparative Linguistics, and General Linguistics, in search of
of solutions with the highest possible likelihood.

To determine the etymon, it is necessary, in addition to a plausible hypothesis, the

delimitation of a synchrony. A word of Latin origin can be an inheritance or

a cultured loanword. Words of Greek origin tend to be almost always
coming from learned loans. In addition, there are words in the Portuguese vocabulary
that belonged to languages spoken before the Roman domination, that is, languages of
substrate. Of the words coming from later phases, we can mention: direct contact
with some Germanic languages (especially Swabian) and with Arabic (spoken and classical),
in the medieval period. There were loans, since the formation of Galician-Portuguese, from
words originating from Castilian and French. After the period of the great
navigations have influences from Italian, as well as from Amerindian, African and
Asian. Much more recently, there are abundant loans from English. Others
loans (German, Hungarian, Finnish) usually come intermediated by others
languages.

The dating of the etymons of the Portuguese language is something still to be developed.

exhaustive form and it is a work proposed by DELPo (Etymological Dictionary of

Portuguese language), developed by NEHiLP(www.nehilp.org), based at FFLCH-
USP. Currently, there is a lot of material for the retroactive dating of the terms in question.

available on the internet, in the form of specialized bodies and also on Google Books
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 The plausibility of an etymological hypothesis requires some knowledge.
the so-called 'phonetic laws', as well as the history of languages and their inter-
relationship. At this point, knowledge of linguistics/philology is essential.
Roman and historical grammar, not only of the Portuguese language but also of languages
related. Knowledge of vulgar Latin is necessary for hypotheses of etymons
inherited directly from the source language. At this point, Brazil has a rich tradition of
researchers, which deserves to be known.

Etymological studies and their methodology have been widely debated, especially in
second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. There was a decline (with the exception

perhaps from the studies of Indo-European reconstruction), after the two world wars, in the
etymological research and discussions, which were very common in magazines such as
Lusitana Magazine, Romania Journal of Romance Philology. The parallel
the development of General Linguistics contributed to the solidity of the foundations of the theory

etymological.

Regarding the Portuguese language, it is necessary to know many works, especially

dictionaries and manuals that present the theoretical assumptions of historical studies of
language and the Romance languages in general. We can subdivide the concerns of
Etymology in some major branches (etymological theory, history of vocabulary)
Portuguese and the origin of the Portuguese language) and choose ten basic books, to which others
can be linked:

VIARO, Mário Eduardo. Etymology. São Paulo: Contexto, 2011aprinting

corrected: 2014].

Theoretical work whose first part focuses on the historiography of etymological studies since
Plato and the second is dedicated to the etymological method proper.
complemented by another work of the author, of a more practical nature (Behind the Words.
São Paulo: Globo, 2004, republished as Manual of Portuguese Etymology. São
Paulo: Globo, 2013). There are few other works on the assumptions and considerations.
necessary for a plausible etymology, among which we can mention only works
written in a foreign language, such as that of Pierre Guiraud, Etymology. Collection
"What do I know?" vol. 1122. Paris: PUF, 1964, by Yakov Malkiel, Etymology.New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1993 [Spanish translation: Etymology. Madrid: Cátedra,
1996] and by Alberto Zamboni. The etymology. Madrid: Gredos, 2001.

2. CUNHA, Antonio G. da. Historical Dictionary of Portuguese Words of Origin

Tupi. São Paulo: Melhoramentos/Edusp, 1989.

As a model of etymological dictionary for the Portuguese language, the author presents, for each
entry, its etymon and contexts with the oldest occurrences of the word, in which the
the word appears spelled in various ways. From the same author, part of his was published
extensive research in a historical-chronological vocabulary of medieval Portuguese. River
Rio de Janeiro: Casa de Rui Barbosa, 2006 (CD-ROM). The same author also coordinated
Etymological dictionary Nova Fronteira of the Portuguese language. Rio de Janeiro: Nova
Boundary, 1982, simpler, but easy to find. Many of the datings
de Cunha is found in the famous Houaiss Dictionary (Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro)
from the S. Dictionary Houaiss of the Portuguese language. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 2001. Version

current in, which, along with José Pedro's dictionary

Machado (Etymological Dictionary of the Portuguese Language. 5v. Lisbon: Confluência,
1952-1977. [Lisbon: Horizonte 2003]), form the solid foundations for the beginning of
research for those who want to learn to do etymology.

3. COROMINAS, Joan. Critical etymological dictionary of the Spanish language. 4 vols.

Madrid: Gredos, 1954.

This work, although it focuses on the Spanish language, has many considerations regarding
other languages of the Iberian Peninsula, such as Galician and Portuguese, with dating quite
useful for the establishment of etymological proposals. It sometimes presents etymons.
quite different from those found in dictionaries (like the famous Romanisches
etymological dictionary, by Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke) and in philology journals
Romantic, however strongly based on historical documentation and in
argumentation. This is a necessary preliminary reading for the discussion of any
etymology. To understand the formation of the Portuguese language within the Iberian Peninsula,
there are many other works that can complement it with new data extracted
directly from texts. Among them, mention is made of the book by Douglas Juan Gifford and Frederick
William Hodcroft, Linguistic Texts of Medieval Spanish. Oxford: The Dolphin, 1966.

4. MAIA, Clarinda de A. The History of Galician-Portuguese. Lisbon: Calouste Foundation

Gulbenkian/National Scientific and Technological Research Board, 1986 [1997].

Extensive and detailed treatise on the separation of the Galician and Portuguese languages in

northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, based on texts transcribed with great philological rigor.
Additionally, older works that must not be missed in a discussion.
preliminary about the history of the Portuguese language authors such as José Joaquim Nunes
and its Compendium of historical Portuguese grammar. Lisbon: Clássica, 1919. [1945] or
by Joseph-Maria Piel. Studies of Galician-Portuguese Historical Linguistics. Lisbon:
National Press-Mint, 1989.

5. CORRIENTE, Federico. Dictionary of Arabic and allied loanwords (Spanish,

Portuguese, Catalan, Galician and related dialects). Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008.

Best dictionary for Arabic-origin words in the Portuguese vocabulary. Current

review the etymologies of Semitic origin with great caution and with a lot of knowledge
linguistic, unlike the sometimes fanciful assumptions found in
many etymological dictionaries, some of them quite respected. The same author
still review, in 2013, all the entries of etymon supposedly Arabic present in
Houaiss dictionary in the article The Arabisms and other Middle Eastern voices of
Houaiss Dictionary of the Portuguese Language, which can be found online at
Unable to access external links or content.

6. ERNOUT, Alfred; MEILLET, Antoine. Etymological Dictionary of the Language

Latin. Paris: Klincksieck, 1932 [2001].

Model for all existing etymological dictionaries, the authors, endowed with
rare erudition and total knowledge of the subject never establish etymons that do not
can be proven. Important for the syncopations of classical Latin, which must be
differentiated from medieval Latin and that has been studied in more traditional dictionaries,
however, excellent, like that of Félix Gaffiot (Latin-French Dictionary. Paris: Hachette,
1934) and in several works of Ernesto Faria (besides his Latin-Portuguese Dictionary,
Historical phonetics of Latin. Rio de Janeiro: Acadêmica, 1955 [1970]
Higher Grammar of the Latin Language. Rio de Janeiro: Acadêmica, 1958). It's worth it,
for those who want to have contact with interesting aspects of the Latin system, to get to know more
the excellent work of Rubens Romanelli, The Latin Prefixes: from Verbal Composition and
nominal in its phonetic, morphological, and semantic aspects. Belo Horizonte: UMG,
1964.

7. MAURER Jr, Theodoro H. The unity of Western Romania. São Paulo:

[FFLCH/USP], 1951.

Work of the former professor at FFLCH-USP, internationally cited to this day, reading
essential for understanding vulgar and medieval Latin. Along with other
two of your works (Grammar of Vulgar Latin. Rio de Janeiro: Acadêmica, 1959 and The
problem of vulgar Latin. Rio de Janeiro: Acadêmica, 1962), forms the basis for
reconstruction of the synchronies between classical Latin and medieval Portuguese. About the
there are several texts that complement the discussion, such as: the work of Manuel C.
Diaz and Diaz, Anthology of Vulgar Latin. Madrid: Gredos, 1950, 1962 or that of Veikko
Väänänen, Introduction to Vulgar Latin. Paris: Klincksieck, 1962. [Spanish translation]
Introduction to Vulgar Latin. Madrid: Gredos, 1985], in addition to
works of Serafim da Silva Neto (Sources of Vulgar Latin. Rio de Janeiro: Academic,
1956 History of Vulgar Latin. Rio de Janeiro: Ao Livro Técnico, 1957, 1977) or
still the old book by Charles H. Grandgent. Introduction to Vulgar Latin. Boston: D.
C. Heath & Co, 1907.

8. WILLIAMS, Edwin B. From Latin to Portuguese: historical Phonology and

Morphology of the Portuguese language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1938 [trans.]
From Latin to Portuguese. Rio de Janeiro: INL, 1961.

Essential work for understanding the evolution of the Portuguese language over time.
time, according to the scientific methodology developed in the second half of the century
XIX was improved at the beginning of the 20th century. Because it is quite technical, this work may be

best appreciated with the reading of works that deal with Philology/Romance Linguistics,
that is, by getting to know better the languages derived from vulgar Latin as a whole, among
they are the comprehensive work of Bruno F. Bassetto, Elements of Romance Philology.
Paulo: Edusp, v1 2001; v2 2010, with extensive bibliography for those who want to delve deeper
on the subject. It can still be complemented with works that address it in more detail.
from the internal history of languages, like that of Heinrich Lauberg. Romance
Linguistics. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co, vol 1 1956, 1963; vol 2 1956; vol 3 1962,
translated into Portuguese as Roman Linguistics. Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian,
1974, 1981.

9. SAID ALI, Manoel. Historical grammar of the Portuguese language. São Paulo:
Improvements, 1931, 2001.

A work that brings together two distinct works by the author (Lexeology of historical Portuguese. They are

Improvements, 1921 and Word Formation and Syntax of Historical Portuguese.

São Paulo: Melhoramentos, 1923) and deepens the studies of the history of Portuguese
from the medieval period to the modern language. Said Ali's work tends to bring
problems that still today have not been sufficiently explored and leave room for many
studies that can be developed.

TEYSSIER, Paul. History of the Portuguese Language. Paris: University Press

from France, 1980 [Portuguese translation: History of the Portuguese language. Lisbon: Sá da Costa,

1982.

A rather succinct work that outlines the entire history of the Portuguese language.
with the concern of detailing the peculiarities of each synchronization, something that neither

it is always done, for the Portuguese language, which is more concerned with the evolution of facts
linguistic than with the determination of the systems in which the facts are situated. Equal
Concerns the work of Rosa Virgínia Mattos e Silva, Trecento Structures:
Elements for a grammar of archaic Portuguese. Lisbon: National Press/ House
from the Currency, 1989.