civilidade

Forms

civilidade f (plural civilidades)^[1] A private letter of 1542 spells it çiviledade.^[2] Morais notes that others write civeldade.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cīvīlitās (“the art of government; courtesy”), formed from cīvīlis (“civil”) with the suffix -tās.^[4][1][5] Cunha instead derives it from French civilité, itself from the Latin noun.^[6] In Latin the word meant first the science of politics and then the behaviour of an ordinary citizen, unassuming and affable.^[5][7]

Bluteau, who knew the word in the opposite sense of “rudeness”, thought it came from the Latin word by antiphrasis, as civel in his Portuguese was the contrary of the Latin adjective.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A private letter of 1542 has the spelling çiviledade.^[2] Houaiss dates the word to 1557, the Commentaries of Afonso de Albuquerque, and Morais quotes that work for the old sense “a base act, a villainy”: soffrer civilidades “to suffer villainies”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries the word meant the behaviour of a man of the common people or a craftsman, a coarse or base act.^[3] The dictionaries of Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) translate it with Latin rusticitas “boorishness”, and Bluteau defines it as discourtesy and rudeness.^[9][10][8] Morais (1813) marks this sense as old and says that civilidade now means courtesy and urbanity, the opposite of rusticity.^[3] Vieira (1871) defines it as good manners towards others and mentions the manuals of civilidade that taught them.^[11] Modern dictionaries give the formalities citizens observe to show each other respect, and politeness in general.^[4][12][13]

Timeline

• 1542 – a private letter has the spelling çiviledade.^[2]
• 1557 – the Commentaries of Afonso de Albuquerque use civilidades for base acts.^[4][3]
• 1611 – Barbosa translates it with Latin rusticitas.^[9]
• 1697 – Pereira gives the same equivalent.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as discourtesy and rudeness.^[8]
• 1813 – Morais marks the sense “base act” as old and gives “courtesy, urbanity” as the current one.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira defines it as good manners towards others.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The set of formalities (formalidade), words and acts by which members of a society show each other respect and consideration.^[4][12][13]
2. civility, politeness, courtesy (cortesia), good manners: Respondeu-lhe com toda a civilidade.^{[12][14][13][1]}
3. (obsolete) A coarse or base act, as of a commoner; rudeness.^[3][8]

Related words

• civil
• cortesia
• urbanidade
• Latin cīvīlitās
• French civilité

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. civilidade
3. ^ a b c d e f g Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 402
4. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. civilidade
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. civilitas
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. civilidade
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. civilitas
8. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. civilidade
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. civilidade
10. ^ a b 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. civilidade
11. ^ 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. 2, 243
12. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. civilidade
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. civilidade
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. civilidade