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Origin and history of Portuguese

Portuguese(n.)

1610s, the language of Portugal, also (1620s) a resident of Portugal; 1660s as an adjective, "of or pertaining to Portugal," from Portuguese Portuguez (see Portugal + -ese). The ending was vulgarly mistaken for a plural in English, and false singular Portugee (by 1821) was formed. Compare Chinee from Chinese; also portegue, portague (1530s), name of a gold coin from Portugal, apparently also a false singular. For Portuguese man-of-war, see man-of-war.

also from 1610s

Entries linking to Portuguese

man-of-war(n.)

late 14c., "a soldier;" see man (n.) + war (n.). The meaning "armed ship, vessel equipped for warfare" is from late 15c. Man in the sense of "a ship" is attested from late 15c. in combinations (such as merchantman). The sea creature known as the Portuguese man-of-war (1707) is so called for its sail-like crest. The great U.S. thoroughbred race horse was Man o' War (1917-1947).

Portugal

country on the west side of the Iberian peninsula, late 14c., Portyngale, from Medieval Latin Portus Cale (the Roman name of modern Oporto), "the port of Gaya," from Latin portus "harbor, port" (see port (n.1), also port (n.5)). Alfonso, Count of Portucale, became the first king of Portugal.

-ese

word-forming element, from Old French -eis (Modern French -ois, -ais), from Vulgar Latin, from Latin -ensem, -ensis "belonging to" or "originating in."

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    Albuquerque
    Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, Duque de Alburquerque (1617-1676); the name subsequently was altered by association with Portuguese...hero Alfonso d'Albuquerque (1453-1515), the "Portuguese Mars," famed as a great conqueror and champion of Christianity....Both men took their names from Alburquerque, a town in Spain near the Portuguese border, the name of which means "white oak...
    assimilationist
    In Portuguese, assimilado (literally "assimilated," past participle of assimilar) was used as a noun of natives of the Portuguese...
    caiman
    type of tropical American alligator, also cayman, 1570s, from Portuguese or Spanish caiman, from Carib acayouman "crocodile..."The name appears to be one of those like anaconda and bom, boma, which the Portuguese or Spaniards very early caught up...
    caravel
    name given to several types of Mediterranean vessels; typically a small type of ship used by the Spanish and Portuguese in...long voyages (Columbus's two smaller ships were caravels), 1520s, from French caravelle (15c.), from Spanish carabela or Portuguese...
    veranda
    also verandah, 1711, Anglo-Indian, from Hindi varanda, which probably is from Portuguese varanda, originally "long balcony...But either in the same sense, or in one closely analogous, it appears to have existed, quite independently, in Portuguese...and Spanish; and the manner in which it occurs without explanation in the very earliest narrative of the adventure of the Portuguese...
    Chamorro
    CHAMORRO a scornful name, given by the Spaniards to the Portuguese, who used to cut off the hair....From the Spanish Chamorro, bald [Anthony Vierya Transtagano, "Dictionary of the Portuguese and English Languages," London...
    Labrador
    large province of eastern Canada, probably from Portuguese Lavrador, which is of uncertain origin....Gasper Cortereal was a Portuguese navigator who explored the coast for the Portuguese crown in 1500 and brought home captives...But a Portuguese map of 1520 has the name Lavrador applied to Greenland, while the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland is...Portuguese explorer João Fernandes, called Llavrador, who was a landholder in the Azores and had sailed as far as Iceland...
    romance
    c. 1300, romaunce, "a story, written or recited, in verse, telling of the adventures of a knight, hero, etc.," often one designed principally for entertainment, from Old French romanz "verse narrative" (Modern French roman), also "the vulgar language." It was originally an adverb
    poet
    "one endowed with the gift and power of imaginative invention and creation, attended by corresponding eloquence of expression, commonly but not necessarily in a metrical form" [Century Dictionary, 1895], early 14c., "a poet, an author of metrical compositions; one skilled in the
    orange
    late 14c., in reference to the fruit of the orange tree (late 13c. as a surname), from Old French orange, orenge (12c., Modern French orange), from Medieval Latin pomum de orenge, from Italian arancia, originally narancia (Venetian naranza), an alteration of Arabic naranj, from P

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