aperitif
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:00 pm
Yesterday I was lucky to find at a book fair in my home town a magazine that deals of my treasured Portuguese language as its main theme. Should I say that I pounced on it and took out a subscription right away? I didn't have enough money, but good thing credit cards exist. Anyway, among the many interesting things that I've read, here's the etymology of aperitif, according to Língua Portuguesa magazine:
Aperitivo
Aperitivum era a palavra dos médicos antigos para purgantes. Nomeava a propriedade dos remédios de abrir o intestino e precipitar a saída de dejetos que congestionavam o organismo. Nada a ver com o sentido atual de petisco e derivados que nos estimulam a fome. A mudança vem da semelhança fonética com "apetite", do latim appetitus, desejo de comer e beber. Aperitivo, que antes só ajudava alguma coisa a sair do corpo, passou a nomear o que abre o apetite e, portanto, ajuda algo a entrar no corpo.
Aperitif
Aperitivum was old doctors' word for purgatives. It named the property of medicines to open up the intestines and precipitate the exit of refuse that congested the organism. It had nothing to do with the modern sense of appetizer and derivatives that whet hunger. The change comes from the phonetic similarity to "appetite", from Latin appetitus. Aperitif, which before only helped something to leave the body, went on to name what "opens" the appetite and, therefore, helps something to enter the body.
Brazilian dude
Aperitivo
Aperitivum era a palavra dos médicos antigos para purgantes. Nomeava a propriedade dos remédios de abrir o intestino e precipitar a saída de dejetos que congestionavam o organismo. Nada a ver com o sentido atual de petisco e derivados que nos estimulam a fome. A mudança vem da semelhança fonética com "apetite", do latim appetitus, desejo de comer e beber. Aperitivo, que antes só ajudava alguma coisa a sair do corpo, passou a nomear o que abre o apetite e, portanto, ajuda algo a entrar no corpo.
Aperitif
Aperitivum was old doctors' word for purgatives. It named the property of medicines to open up the intestines and precipitate the exit of refuse that congested the organism. It had nothing to do with the modern sense of appetizer and derivatives that whet hunger. The change comes from the phonetic similarity to "appetite", from Latin appetitus. Aperitif, which before only helped something to leave the body, went on to name what "opens" the appetite and, therefore, helps something to enter the body.
Brazilian dude