Also 8 phidalgo. [Pg. fidalgo nobleman, contraction for filho de algo (obs.) son of something. Cf. HIDALGO.] A Portuguese noble. Also (see quot. 1705).
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 117. Whether the behaviour of the Fidalgo displeased our Sea men, or that they understood them not … I know not.
1705. Bosman, Guinea, xix. 361. The Vice-roys, here called Phidalgoes or Governadors, which compose the first State of the Kingdom.
1829. Southey, Sir T. More, II. 236–7. Our young fidalgos resemble this Cavalliero as little as they do the Circassian gentry, whose habit of life it was, according to Tavernier, to sit still, say little, and do nothing.
