Fidalgo

Fidalgo (Portuguese: [fiˈðaɫɣu], Galician: [fiˈðalɣo]), from Galician and Portuguese filho de algo— equivalent to nobleman, but sometimes literally translated into English as "son of somebody" or "son of some (important family)"—is a traditional title of Portuguese nobility that refers to a member of the titled or untitled nobility. A fidalgo is comparable in some ways to the French (the word also implies nobility by birth or by charge) and to the Italian . The title was abolished after the overthrow of the Monarchy in 1910. It is also a family surname.

The word has the same etymological and historical roots as its Spanish cognate, hidalgo. Although algo generally means "something", in this expression the word specifically denotes "riches" or "wealth" and thus was originally synonymous with rico homem (literally, "a rich man").

As late as the reign of Afonso III (1248–1279), who completed the reconquest of the Algarve, the nobility was not differentiated as it would be later. All nobles, who were the large landowners, were referred to simply by two synonyms, fidalgo and ricos homens. Originally, rico homem referred to the administrative duties entrusted to a noble and fidalgo referred to the inherited status of nobility (in an older parlance, "the nobility of blood"). Below the ricos homens was a descending category of their vassals: the infanções, the knights (cavaleiros), and the squires (escudeiros).

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