agente

Forms

agente m or f by sense (plural agentes)^[1] The 15th century also writes agete.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin agēns (“doing, acting”), the present participle of agō (“to drive, do”).^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes calls it a learned word.^[5] Wiktionary adds that it can now be analysed as agir with the suffix -ente.^[1]

As a noun, the Latin participle meant “pleader, advocate”, and Medieval Latin used it for the agent of a lord or a church and for a royal officer.^[6][7] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”), and is cognate with Ancient Greek ἄγω (ágō, “to lead”).^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 15th century, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, spelt agente and agete.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) treats agente first as a term of physics, whatever has the power to produce an effect, with the agente natural and the agente livre; he then gives the agent of a prince, a minister who acts without the title of ambassador, and the agent of a body such as the University of Coimbra.^[9] Feijó (1734) defines it simply as one who handles business.^[10] Morais has it as an adjective “active” in 1789, and as a noun in 1813: any active cause, the motive power in mechanics, a prince's minister at a foreign court, and the proxy of a corporation.^[11][12] The grammatical sense, the doer of the action, and the agent of a passive verb were in the dictionaries by Figueiredo's time.^[13] The modern senses of spy, police officer and offender are listed by Houaiss.^[2]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records, spelt agente and agete.^[2][3]
• 1607 – agente in a private letter.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives the physical, diplomatic and administrative senses.^[9]
• 1734 – Feijó: one who handles business.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais enters the adjective “active”.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais enters the noun with its causal, mechanical and diplomatic senses.^[12]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives it from Latin agens.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or thing that acts or produces an effect; a cause.^[2][16]
2. A person who handles other people's business; an agent or representative: agente literário.^[2][17]
3. The manager of an agency (agência).^[2][18]
4. A spy paid by a foreign country: agente secreto.^[2][18]
5. (law) An official who represents the public administration.^[2]
6. (law) The perpetrator of a crime.^[2]
7. A member of the police (polícia); a police officer.^[2][19]
8. (medicine, chemistry) An active force or substance: agente químico.^[2][20][18]
9. (grammar) The doer of the action; in the passive, the complement introduced by por or de.^[2][4]

Related words

• agir
• agência

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. agente
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. agente
4. ^ a b 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. agente
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. agente
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. agente
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. agente
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. agente
10. ^ 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. agente
11. ^ 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, 40
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 63
13. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. agente
14. ^ 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. agente
15. ^ 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, 222
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. agente
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. agente
18. ^ a b c Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. agente
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 333
20. ^ 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. agente