Etymology

Portugal

P3O1R1T1U1G2A1L1

Today it means: A Portuguese person. Full definition →

Portuguese Portugal ← Latin Portucale ← Ancient Greek Καλλίς
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromΚαλλίς“Beautiful”
  2. Latin · derived fromPortucale
  3. Portuguese · borrowed fromPortugal
  4. English todayPortugal

Borrowed from Portuguese Portugal, from Latin Portucale < Portus Cale (former name of what is now the city of Vila Nova de Gaia), from portus + Callus, which is disputed: * From the name of the Gallaeci, a Celtic tribe of Iberia. * From Latin calidus (“warm”). * From Ancient Greek Καλλίς (Kallís, “Beautiful”), referring to the Douro valley; see καλός (kalós, “beautiful”). * An Iberian pronunciation of Ancient Greek Γαῖα (Gaîa, “goddess of the Earth”).

Words from the same roots

LatinPortucale all →

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.