através

Forms

através (not comparable)^[1] 15th-century texts write atraues, atrauez and atravez.^[2] The spelling atravez was still in use in the 19th century.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese a + través (“slant, crosswise direction”).^[2][5][6][7] The noun is from Latin trānsversus (“lying across, oblique”), the participle of trānsvertō (“to turn across”).^[1] Houaiss explains the loss of its final vowel by its unstressed position in adverbial phrases with a preposition before it and a noun after it.^[8] The DLP, Michaelis and the original Caldas Aulete instead derive the whole word from Latin ad (“to”) and trānsversē (“crosswise”).^[9][10][11]

Compare Spanish a través de, Italian attraverso and French à travers.^[1] Wiktionary traces the Latin adjective to Proto-Italic *trānsworssos, whence also Umbrian trahuorfi (“transversely”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the adverb to the 14th century, in the sense now obsolete of “sideways, crosswise”.^[2] Cunha's first record is of the 15th century, with the senses “from side to side” and “crosswise”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Vieira's dictionary still gives only the adverb, “transversely, aslant, from one side to the other”, with pôr através “to put sideways”.^[13] Figueiredo's dictionary of 1899 records the prepositional phrase através de “through, through the middle of, from side to side of”.^[14] This phrase took over the word's use: it came to mean “through” something seen or crossed, “through the inside of”, “by way of”, “in the course of” a stretch of time, and figuratively “by means of”.^[2][11][6] Wiktionary marks the sense “by means of” as proscribed.^[1] The bare adverb is now marked as old or popular.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record of the adverb.^[2]
• 15th century – the spellings atraues, atrauez and atravez.^[2][12]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives it from Latin trans and versum.^[13]
• 1899 – Figueiredo enters através de as a prepositional phrase.^[14]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos still refers através to atravez.^[4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (dated) crosswise, transversely; from one side to the other.^[2][15][11]
2. através de: through, from one side of something to the other: atravessou a cidade através do parque.^[2][6][1]
3. através de: through, between the parts of: via-se o mar através das árvores.^[2][6]
4. através de: by way of, through an opening: entrou através de uma porta lateral.^[2]
5. através de: in the course of, throughout a period of time.^[2][6][7]
6. através de: by means of.^[11][1]

Related words

• atravessar
• atravessado
• través
• travessa
• Latin trānsversus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. através
3. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. através
4. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. através
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. através
6. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. através
7. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1084
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. través
9. ^ 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. através
10. ^ 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. através
11. ^ a b c d e 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. através
12. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. através
13. ^ 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, 646
14. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. através
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. através