mundo (Portuguese)
Where does "mundo" come from?
The Portuguese word 'mundo' traces its roots back to the Latin 'mundus,' a term that initially described something clean, pure, or adorned. This Latin concept of an ordered and elegant universe eventually evolved through Old Galician-Portuguese into the modern word for our Earth and humanity. It is believed that this lineage may stem from ancient Proto-Indo-European roots connected to concepts of ornamentation or cleansing.
Full etymology tree
- mundo (Portuguese), 'world (the Universe)'
- inherited mundo (Old Galician-Portuguese)
- inherited mundus (Latin), 'clean, pure; neat'
- inherited 𐌌𐌖𐌈 (muθ) (Etruscan)
- inherited *mh₂nd- (Proto-Indo-European)
- influence *m(y)ewh₁- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to move'
- inherited mundus (Latin), 'clean, pure; neat'
- inherited mundo (Old Galician-Portuguese)
Ancestors
- mundus (Latin)
Descendants and derived words
- mundu (Papiamentu)
- do mundo (Portuguese)
- mundão (Portuguese)
- mundinho (Portuguese)
- novo mundo (Portuguese)
- terceiro mundo (Portuguese)
- todo mundo (Portuguese)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris