assaz

Forms

assaz (not comparable)^[1] Old forms are aças (13th century) and aasaz (14th century).^[2] The spelling assás was also used: Vieira and Figueiredo enter the word under it.^[3][4][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan assatz (“enough, very”), from Late Latin ad satis (“enough”), from Latin ad (“to”) and satis (“enough”).^[1][5][6] Houaiss gives the Late Latin phrase, probably through the Occitan word.^[2] Nascentes notes that the phrase inherited would have given ⟨*assades⟩ in Portuguese, so the word came by a literary route.^[7] The Meyer-Lübke dictionary derives Spanish asaz and the Portuguese word from the Occitan one, and lists Italian assai and Old French asez as other outcomes of the Latin phrase.^[8]

Leite de Vasconcelos proposed instead satiēs (“abundance, satiety”) in the phrase ad satiem, which is found in Juvencus and would explain the final /z/ of the Portuguese and Spanish words, as Old Galician-Portuguese az continues aciēs; he thought it unlikely that so common an adverb, found in proverbs too, came from Occitan.^[9][10] Machado accepts this view, and Houaiss mentions it as the opinion of those who think the Occitan step unnecessary.^[9][2] Aurélio and Porto Editora combine the two: the phrase with the noun, passing through Occitan.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[2][5] It is common in the troubadour lyric, with the senses “enough” and “very”: Machado quotes King Dinis, de vos veer a min praz / tanto que muito é assaz “it pleases me so much to see you that it is more than enough”, and Airas Nunez writes of a company assaz brava e crua “very fierce and cruel”.^[9][13]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval cantigas assaz also meant “for a long time”, as in Martin Soares's u muitos presos jouveron assaz “where many prisoners lay a long time”, and assaz de was used before a noun for “plenty of”.^[13][14] The adverb was frequent in 15th-century prose such as the Horto do Esposo.^[15] Folqman's dictionary of 1755 gives examples of assaz de with nouns and of assaz before adjectives.^[16] Today the word belongs to formal and literary language, and Wiktionary marks it as chiefly dated.^[2][1] Aurélio and Aulete also record it as an indefinite determiner before a noun, “much, enough”.^[11][17]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the cantigas.^[2][5][13]
• c. 1430 – frequent in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[15]
• 1540 – a private letter spells it acaz.^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it by Latin sat and satis.^[19]
• 1755 – Folqman gives assaz de parentes and assaz rico.^[16]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (formal) sufficiently, enough: Era assaz forte para carregar o saco.^[2][20][17]
2. (formal) To a high degree, very: ficou assaz cansado.^[2][20][1]

Determiner

1. (rare) Much, enough, before a noun: com assaz paciência.^[11][17]

Related words

• bastante
• Latin satis
• Spanish asaz

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. assaz
3. ^ 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, 611
4. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. assaz
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. assaz
6. ^ 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. assaz
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. assaz
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 199
9. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. assaz
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ad satis
11. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. assaz
12. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1004
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. assaz
14. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. assaz
15. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. assaz
16. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. assaz
17. ^ 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. assaz
18. ^ 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. assaz
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. assaz
20. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. assaz