menino

See also: meniño

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈme.ni.no/
• Rhymes: -enino
• Hyphenation: mé‧ni‧no

Verb

menino

1. inflection of menare:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative

Anagrams

• nomine

Portuguese

menino (sense 1) ― boy

meninos ― children

Alternative forms

• minino, meninho (archaic, dialectal)

Etymology

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese meninho (the palatal nasal survives in the Galician cognate meniño), of uncertain origin:

• From Latin minimus.
• From a Gallo-Romance language (cf. Catalan minyó (“boy”), French mignon (“cute”)).
• From meu ninno, with ninno being a borrowing from Old Spanish niño. The alveolar nasal may have arisen due to conflation with Old Galician-Portuguese neno, from Vulgar Latin *ninnus.
• From Paleo-Hispanic, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small”) (compare Middle Irish menn (“kid”), Middle Breton menn (“young goat”), Middle Welsh myn (“kid”), from Proto-Celtic *menno-).

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /miˈnĩ.nu/, /meˈnĩ.nu/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /miˈnĩ.nu/, /meˈnĩ.nu/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /meˈni.no/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /mɨˈni.nu/

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ĩnu, (Portugal) -inu
• Hyphenation: me‧ni‧no

Noun

menino m (plural meninos, feminine menina, feminine plural meninas)

2. boy (a young male)

   Synonyms: garoto, rapaz, moço, (Portugal) miúdo, (South Brazil) guri, (Paraná) piá, (colloquial) catraio

   Aquele menino só me aporrinha. ― That boy always gets on my nerves.

   Os meninos têm fome. ― The children are hungry.

Derived terms

• meninada

Related terms

• menina
• meninão
• menininho

Descendants

• Guinea-Bissau Creole: mininu
• Kabuverdianu: meninu
• → Spanish: menino, menina
  • → French: menin

Further reading

• “menino”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “menino”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “menino”, in Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisboa: Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, 2001–2025
• “menino”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
• “menino”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese menino (“child”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈnino/ [meˈni.no]
• Rhymes: -ino
• Syllabification: me‧ni‧no

Noun

menino m (plural meninos, feminine menina, feminine plural meninas) (historical)

1. a royal page; a young man recruited to serve in a palace.

Further reading

• “menino”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024