circunstância

Forms

circunstância f (plural circunstâncias)^[1] Fifteenth-century spellings include çircunstança, cincunstancia, çircostançia and circõstãcia.^[2][3] A private letter of about 1600 writes sircũstãçia.^[4]

Etymology

Houaiss, Wiktionary, Aurélio and the DLP take it as borrowed from Latin circumstantia (“a standing around; circumstance, particular”).^[2][1][5][6] Cunha instead derives it from French circonstance, itself from the Latin word.^[3] Houaiss gives 1473 as the first date but lists a spelling with ç- under 1437 among the historical forms.^[2] Cunha dates the word to the 15th century.^[2][3]

The Latin noun is formed on circumstō (“to stand around”).^[7][2] In the sense “particular, attendant fact” Houaiss connects it with Ancient Greek περίστασις (perístasis, “a standing around; circumstances”),^[2][8] and Bluteau already noted that Quintilian used the Latin word because he could find no other way to render the Greek term.^[9] The same Latin word gave Spanish circunstancia, Galician circunstancia, Italian circostanza and Catalan circumstància.^[1]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defines the word as all that accompanies an action and makes it more or less weighty.^[9] Morais in 1813 has the quality or accident attached to something, as the circumstances of a state, a case or a crime.^[10] The original Caldas Aulete adds the legal sense of a fact that aggravates or lessens guilt and the plural “state of affairs at the moment”.^[11] The sense “solemnity, formality” survives in pompa e circunstância, and the DLP records de circunstância for what suits a solemn occasion.^[11][6][1]

Timeline

• 1437 – çircunstança, among Houaiss's historical forms.^[2]
• 1473 – Houaiss's first date for the word.^[2]
• 15th century – the spellings cincunstancia, çircostançia and circõstãcia.^[2]
• 16th century – first record of circunstante, from the Latin participle.^[3]
• c. 1600 – sircũstãçia in a private letter.^[4]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau cites Quintilian for the Latin word.^[9]
• 1813 – Morais lists the circumstances of a case and of a crime.^[10]
• 1836 – first record of circunstancial, in Cunha's addenda.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A circumstance: a condition of time, place or manner that surrounds or accompanies a fact.^[2][12][1]
2. A detail or particular attached to an event.^[2][5]
3. (usually in the plural) The situation or state of things at a given moment: Nas circunstâncias atuais, é melhor esperar.^[2][5][1]
4. A case or hypothesis; a cause or motive.^[5][11]
5. (law) A fact that aggravates or lessens a crime: circunstâncias atenuantes.^[5][12]
6. (formal) Solemnity, ceremony: pompa e circunstância.^[1][11][6]

Word family

• circunstancial
• circunstanciar

Related words

• circunstante
• Latin circumstantia
• Spanish circunstancia

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. circunstância
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. circunstância
4. ^ a b 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. circunstância
5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. circunstância
6. ^ 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. circunstância
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. circumstantia
8. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. περίστασις
9. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. circunstância
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 400
11. ^ a b c d 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. circunstância
12. ^ 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. circunstância