maior

Learned borrowing from Latin maiōrem.

maior m or f (plural maiores)

1. bigger, greater, major

   Antonym: menor

2. (music) major

   Antonym: menor

• meirande

• maioría

• major, maiior

From Proto-Italic *magjōs, from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂yōs, from *meǵh₂- (“great”) +‎ *-yōs (comparative suffix).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmai̯.i̯or/, [ˈmäi̯ːɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈma.jor/, [ˈmäːjor]

maior (neuter maius); third declension

1. comparative degree of magnus

   Antonym: minor

• In dictionaries published before the 21st century, the root vowel can often be found marked as long, but it is in those cases indicated to be long by position rather than by nature. This convention is abolished in modern dictionaries, which give, depending on typography, maior or major without a macron. The vowel is thus properly short, as can be indicated by the variant typographic spelling măjjor.

Third-declension comparative adjective, with locative.

• maiestās (noun)
• maiusculus (diminutive)

maior m (genitive maiōris); third declension

1. (in the plural) ancestors, forefathers; advanced in years, the aged; the elders
   • 106 BCE – 43 BCE, Cicero, Pro Archia Poeta Oratio line 284:

     Ergo illum, qui haec fecerat, Rudinum hominem, maiores nostri in civitatem receperunt.

     Therefore Ennius, who composed these poems, although a man from Rudiae, our ancestors granted him citizenship.

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 5.73–74:

     ‘hinc sua maiōrēs tribuisse vocābula Maiō
     tangor et aetātī cōnsuluisse suae.’

     ‘‘Because of this, the ancestors granted their name to May,
     I have come to grasp, and in regard to their own old age.’’
     (The muse Urania claims that the month of May honors the ‘‘maiōrēs’’ – ‘‘ancestors’’ or ‘‘elders’’.)

2. (Medieval Latin) A mayor (a leader of a city or town).

Third-declension noun.

• Old French: maire m
  • Middle French: maire m
    • French: maire m
  • Norman: maire m
  • → Middle English: maire
    • English: mayor

• “major”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “maior”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• maior in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the elde: maior (natu)
    
  • the majority: maior pars
    
  • (ambiguous) to exaggerate a thing: in maius ferre, in maius extollere aliquid
    
  • (ambiguous) to overestimate a thing: in maius accipere aliquid
    
  • (ambiguous) to deteriorate: a maiorum virtute desciscere, degenerare, deflectere
    
  • (ambiguous) according to the custom and tradition of my fathers: more institutoque maiorum (Mur. 1. 1)
    
  • (ambiguous) what is more important: quod maius est
    
• maior in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “maior”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray

• major
• majour
• majur
• maor

Latin māior.

maior (oblique singular, nominative singular maire)

1. bigger; larger
2. very large

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (maior)
• maiur on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

• mayor (obsolete)

From Old Galician-Portuguese maior, mayor, from Latin māiōrem, from Proto-Indo-European *mag- (“great”) + *-yos (comparative suffix). Doublet of major.

• Rhymes: (Portugal, São Paulo) -ɔɾ, (Brazil) -ɔʁ
• Hyphenation: mai‧or

maior m or f (plural maiores)

1. (followed by que) comparative degree of grande; bigger, larger

   Antonym: menor

   Melancias são maiores que laranjas.

   Watermelons are bigger than oranges.

2. (preceded by a definite article) superlative degree of grande; biggest, largest

   Antonym: menor

   Júpiter é o maior planeta do Sistema Solar.

   Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System.

3. major, greater

   Antonym: menor

   um desafio maior

   a major challenge

4. (music) major

   Antonym: menor

5. (Brazil, informal) big, great

   Synonym: mó

   Ele é maior idiota...

   He is a big idiot

• maioria
• maiormente

maior

1. (Brazil, informal) very, quite

   Synonyms: bem, bastante, mó

   Essa comida comida tem um gosto maior ruim.

   That food tastes very bad.

• “maior”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2024

Borrowed from Russian майор (major) or German Major, from Latin maior. Doublet of major and possibly mare.

maior m (plural maiori)

1. major