ancião

Forms

ancião m (plural anciãos or anciões or anciães, feminine anciã, feminine plural anciãs)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote ancião, ãcião and the plural ançiáás.^[1] Cunha also has anciāao and ançiano from the 14th century.^[2][3][1] The plural is anciãos, anciões or anciães.^[4][1] Morais noted in 1813 that anciãos is the regular form but anciões the commoner.^[4][1]

Etymology

Cunha, Nascentes, Aurélio and Wiktionary take it as borrowed from Old French ancien (“old, former”), a word of three syllables in Old French.^[3][5][6][1] The French word goes back to Vulgar Latin *anteānus, from Latin ante (“before”).^[3][1][7] Houaiss instead derives the Portuguese word from a Vulgar Latin *antianus, built on *antius, and sees French influence only in the variant Old Galician-Portuguese ançiano.^[2] Machado starts from Medieval Latin antianus and allows that it came through French or Old Occitan ancian.^[8]

Corominas, after Gamillscheg, argues that Old French anciien cannot continue a formation already made in Latin and that the adjective was formed in Romance on the adverb ainz (“before”) (Italian anzi); since Spanish shows no trace of that adverb, he holds that Spanish anciano came very early from French or Occitan.^[9] The DHLF notes that the French word had a hierarchical sense, “senior in rank”, rather than a temporal one, and may be a clerics' word.^[7] Italian anziano is the Italian counterpart.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it as an adjective: e sabede do miragre que non é muit' ancião “and hear of the miracle, which is not very old”.^[10] A medieval version of the Rule of Saint Benedict has the noun, in o cõselho dos anciãos “the council of the elders”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century Machado quotes the noun, Grã debate foe ãtre os anciaãos “there was great debate among the elders”, and the adjective in Fernão Lopes.^[8] Morais defines it as an old man of authority, venerable, and in 1813 adds the figurative ancião na prudência and the sense “old, worn”, said of a carpet.^[11][4] Vieira compares the Provençal, Spanish and French forms and glosses the adjective with “aged, ancient, of long ago”.^[12] Today it is mainly a noun for an old and respected person.^[13] Houaiss also records it for an elder or presbyter of a church, and the adjective for very old things and for outdated ideas.^[2][13]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use ancião as an adjective.^[10][2]
• 14th century – the forms anciāao and ançiano.^[3]
• 15th century – ançiaao; the noun anciaãos “elders” in a text quoted by Machado.^[2][8]
• 17th century – first records of ancianidade and anciania.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as an old, venerable man.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais records the three plurals anciães, anciões and anciãos.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of advanced age, elderly (idoso) (said especially of people); old and venerable (venerável).^[2][14][15]
2. (rare) Very old, of long standing.^[2][13]
3. Antiquated (antiquado), out of date.^[2][15]

Noun

1. An old man, especially one who is respected and wise; an elder: Os anciãos da aldeia reuniram-se à porta da igreja.^[2][13][14]
2. (Christianity) An elder of a church, a presbítero.^[2]

Word family

• ancianidade
• anciania

Related words

• Latin ante
• Spanish anciano
• French ancien

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ancião
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ancião
4. ^ a b c d Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 130
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ancião
6. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ancião
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ancien
8. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. ancião
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 253
10. ^ 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. ancião
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, 80
12. ^ 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, 406
13. ^ a b c d 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. ancião
14. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ancião
15. ^ a b 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. ancião