advogado

Forms

advogado m (plural advogados, feminine advogada, feminine plural advogadas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote avogado and vogado;^[2][3] vogado is still recorded in the 14th century.^[2][3] Avogado lasted into the 17th century, and Bluteau (1712) and Folqman (1755) still give it beside advogado.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin advocātus (“legal counsel, one called to assist”), written Old Galician-Portuguese avogado in the oldest texts and refashioned on the Latin spelling.^[2][6][3][1] Houaiss calls the modern form semi-learned and Machado learned: Cunha first records it in the 16th century, and the spelling Old Galician-Portuguese auogado in the 13th.^[2][3][7] Vieira describes the old form as the Latin ⟨d⟩ of the prefix assimilated to the next consonant, with the Latin /t/ voiced to /d/ and /k/ to /ɡ/.^[8] The Latin noun is the past participle of advocō (“to call to oneself, summon”), from ad- and vocō (“to call”).^[9][10][1]

The same Latin word is Galician avogado, Spanish abogado, Italian avvocato, Old Occitan avogat and French avoué.^[11][12] French avocat is a learned borrowing of the same word, recorded from 1160.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the devil makes a man seu avogado, his advocate.^[13] The Miragres de Santiago call Saint James avogado dos rromeus “advocate of the pilgrims”, an intercessor.^[13] Machado quotes vogado from a 13th-century law, que não possa auer vogado contra o senhor “that he may not have an advocate against the lord”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the word named both the legal counsel and a protector: Machado notes the sense “defender of religious communities or abbeys”, later of towns, and Houaiss records advogado das igrejas for the nobleman who defended the churches.^[3][2] The religious sense of an intercessor survives in the saint invoked against a particular danger.^[14][15]

The learned spelling spread in the 16th century, when a proverb runs a teu advogado e a teu abbade sempre dize verdade “always tell the truth to your lawyer and your abbot”.^[3] Barbosa (1611) renders it by Latin patronus, advocatus and causidicus.^[16] Feijó (1734) judges advogado and advogar more correct and more usual than avogado and avogar.^[17] Vieira (1871) still hears avogado in the speech of the people.^[8]

The phrase advogado do diabo entered canon law in 1760 for the official who raises objections in causes of beatification, and was extended to anyone who argues against a thesis.^[2] Brazil has advogado de porta de xadrez (or de cadeia) for the lawyer without clients who looks for them at the prisons.^[2][18][1]

Timeline

• 1200s – avogado and vogado in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and in laws.^[13][3][2]
• 1426 – auogados e scpriuaes in a document.^[3]
• 1500s – first records of the spelling advogado.^[7][3]
• 1584 – a private letter still writes avogado.^[19]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists Advogado.^[16]
• 1669 – avogado in Frei Manuel do Sepulcro's Refeição Espiritual.^[3]
• 1734 – Feijó recommends advogado over avogado.^[17]
• 1760 – first record of advogado do diabo.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) A lawyer: a person qualified in law who advises clients and represents them in court or out of it.^{[2][18][14][1]}
2. (by extension) An intercessor or mediator.^[2][14]
3. A patron, defender or protector of a person, cause or idea; a saint invoked against a particular evil.^[2][18][15]

Word family

• advogado do diabo

Related words

• advogar
• advocacia
• Latin advocātus
• Galician avogado
• Spanish abogado

Usage notes

Advogado is also the past participle of advogar, and Houaiss records it from the 13th century as an adjective, “pleaded by an advocate”, beside the noun.^[2][20] Morais (1789) still enters it only as a participle.^[2][20] The feminine is advogada.^[1]

Set phrases include advogado do diabo, advogado de defesa and advogado de acusação, advogado de ofício (assigned by the court), in Brazil advogado administrativo (pejorative, one who trades on influence with officials) and in Portugal advogado da corda (pejorative, one who hunts for clients at the courts).^[2][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. advogado
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. advogado
4. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. advogado
5. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. advogado
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. advogado
7. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. advogado
8. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 180
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. avocat
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 226
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. advocatus
13. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. avogado
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. advogado
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. advogado
16. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. advogado
17. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. advogado
18. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. advogado
19. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. advogado
20. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 31
21. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. advogado