burguesia

Forms

burguesia f (plural burguesias)^[1] Until the spelling reforms it was written burguezia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese burguês + -ia.^[2][4][5][6] Wiktionary takes it instead as a borrowing of French bourgeoisie, which can be analysed in the same way.^[1] DELPo compares Spanish burguesía.^[7]

The base noun is inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese burges, recorded in the 13th century, from Medieval Latin burgensis (“of a burgh; inhabitant of a burgh”), a derivative of Latin burgus (“small fort; village”), which Houaiss takes from Proto-Germanic *burgs (“citadel, fort”).^[8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, 1881, is that of Caldas Aulete's dictionary, which spells the word burguezia;^[2][9] Cunha gives the same year.^[2][9] The old Caldas Aulete defines it as the quality of being a burgher and as the middle class, as distinct from the workers and the nobles.^[11] The word is older than the dictionaries show: the Tycho Brahe corpus has it in the work of an author born in 1608.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The first dictionaries give two senses, the status of a burgher and the middle class.^[11][6] Houaiss and the Academia's dictionary add the historical senses, the condition of the free inhabitant of a medieval burgh and the class that grew in the towns with trade and came to dominate after the French Revolution.^[2][4] With the Industrial Revolution the class divided into alta, média and pequena burguesia;^[2][5] Aurélio notes that in the 20th century the middle and petty bourgeoisie came to be called classe média.^[2][5] In the socialist sense the word names the class that owns the means of production, opposed to the proletariado.^[13][14][2]

In Portugal a dialect survey records burguesia for idleness.^[15]

Timeline

• 13th century – the base burges in Galician-Portuguese texts.^[8][9]
• 1881 – burguezia in Caldas Aulete's dictionary.^[2][9]
• 1899 – Figueiredo: the quality of a burgher; the middle class of society.^[6]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos still spells it burguezia.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) In the Middle Ages, the status of a burgher, a free inhabitant of a burgo.^[2][4]
2. (history, sociology) The social class that arose in the medieval towns with the growth of trade and became politically and economically dominant after the French Revolution.^[2][4][5]
3. (sociology) The bourgeoisie, the middle class: the liberal professions and the owners of businesses, as opposed to the proletariado and the peasantry; also in alta burguesia, pequena burguesia.^{[2][5][16][1]}
4. (Marxism) The ruling class of capitalism, which owns the means of production.^[13][14]
5. (derogatory) The outlook considered typical of this class.^[2]

Related words

• burguês
• burgo
• French bourgeoisie
• Spanish burguesía

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. burguesia
3. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. burguezia
4. ^ 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. burguesia
5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. burguesia
6. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. burguesia
7. ^ 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. burguesia
8. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. burguês
9. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. burgo
10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. burguês
11. ^ a b 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. burguesia
12. ^ Galves, Charlotte; Andrade, Aroldo Leal de; Faria, Pablo (2017), Tycho Brahe Parsed Corpus of Historical Portuguese, Campinas: UNICAMP, http://www.tycho.iel.unicamp.br, p. s.v. burguesia
13. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. burguesia
14. ^ 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. burguesia
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. burguesia
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1575