avôs

See also: avos and avós

Portuguese

Etymology

From analogy with the singular form, the inherited plural os avós presents regular metaphony (cf. ôvo, óvos; nôvo, nóvos) and now means grandparents (see usage note), from Old Galician-Portuguese avoos, from Late Latin aviolos, ultimately from Latin avus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwh₂os (“grandfather”).

Pronunciation

(Brazil) IPA^(key): /aˈvo(j)s/ [aˈvo(ɪ̯)s]
- (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /aˈvo(j)ʃ/ [aˈvo(ɪ̯)ʃ]

(Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐˈvoʃ/
- (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐˈboʃ/ [ɐˈβoʃ]

Rhymes: (Brazil) -os, (Portugal, Rio de Janeiro) -oʃ, (Brazil) -ojs, (Rio de Janeiro) -ojʃ
Hyphenation: a‧vôs

Noun

avôs

plural of avô

Usage notes

Avô has two plural forms, avôs and avós. The former (os avôs) means exclusively a group of two or more men (cf. English grandfathers), the latter (os avós) is used for a group of both men and women (cf. English grandparents). Both are masculine nouns. The plural of avó (grandmother) is a regular feminine noun (as avós) and means grandmothers. This is one of the few Portuguese nouns that have a tripartite plural inflection, the others being sogro, consogro, tio-avô, bisavô and other derived terms.