cópia

Forms

cópia f (plural cópias)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōpia (“abundance, means”), a learned word of the 14th century.^[2][3][1] Houaiss takes the sense “reproduction” from French copie, recorded in 1270 for a written copy.^[2] Nascentes explains the sense from Medieval Latin, from the phrase copiam facere scripti “to spread a manuscript by reproducing it many times”.^[3][1] Wiktionary likewise derives the word from Medieval Latin, where the noun meant “reproduction, transcript”.^[3][1] Corominas, on the Spanish word, explains it from the classical sense “the possibility of having something”, as in phrases meaning “to put something at someone's disposal”, whence “to have a copy of a text”.^[4][5]

The Latin noun is formed from co- (“together”) and ops (“power, resources”).^[2][1] De Vaan derives the latter from Proto-Italic and Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep- (“ability, force”).^[6][1] The same Latin word is Spanish copia, Catalan còpia and Italian copia.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology has the first record in 1309, already in the sense “written copy”: the notary had read out una copia escrita en purgameo “a copy written on parchment”.^[7][2] A Santiago document of 1425 has dese copia “should give a copy” of a set of documents.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Beside the documentary sense, the Latin sense “abundance” was taken over: Cunha dates it to the 16th century, and Cardoso (1569), Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) translate copia only as Latin copia, abundantia, ubertas.^{[8][9][10][11]} Vieira quotes this sense from Camões's Lusíadas (com larga copia).^[12] The DLP treats the two senses as two words, one learned from Latin, the other through the French.^[13] The modern senses cover reproductions of works of art and copies by printing, photography or recording, and cópia de segurança “backup” in computing.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 1309 – una copia escrita en purgameo in a notarial document.^[7]
• 1425 – dese copia in a document of the council of Santiago.^[7]
• 1513 – copia in the Livro dos Mártires.^[15]
• 1500s – the sense “abundance”.^[8]
• 1542 – copia in a private letter.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates copia as ubertas and copia.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A copy or transcript of a text; a traslado.^[2][14][1]
2. A faithful reproduction of a work of art or other original: uma cópia de um quadro de Goya.^[2][14]
3. An imitation; a forgery or plagiarism.^[2][17]
4. A reproduction made by printing, photocopying (fotocópia), photography or recording; each of the copies of a print run.^[2][13]
5. (figurative) A person who looks very much like another: Ela é a cópia do avô.^[2][17]
6. (literary) abundance, a great quantity.^[2][13]

Word family

• copiar
• copista
• fotocópia

Related words

• copioso
• Latin cōpia
• Spanish copia

Usage notes

Cópia de segurança is the usual term for a computer backup.^[2][17]

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 k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cópia
3. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. cópia
4. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. copia
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 188
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d 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. copia
8. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cópia
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. copia
10. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. copia
11. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. copia
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. 2, 503
13. ^ a b c 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. cópia
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cópia
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. copia
16. ^ 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. cópia
17. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cópia