cliente

Forms

cliente m or f by sense (plural clientes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cliēns (“a dependant under a patron's protection”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] Aurélio and the Wikcionário bring it in through French client, which the French had borrowed from Latin by 1437.^[5][6][7]

The origin of the Latin word is disputed: de Vaan reconstructs *klient- (“one who leans, depends”) and sees in it the active participle of the root aorist of Proto-Indo-European *ḱlei- (“to lean”), the root of šlíeti (“to lean”).^[8] Others take it as an altered form of cluēns, the present participle of clueō (“to be called, be esteemed”),^[1][9] and Plautus does write forms in ⟨clu-⟩.^[10] The DHLF calls the origin unknown, perhaps Etruscan.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first Portuguese record to 1561.^[2] Bluteau (1712) still calls it a legal term: the party whose case is in a lawyer's hands, or anyone under the protection or authority of another, and in Rome the citizen under a patron's protection.^[11] He quotes Frei Jacinto de Deus: Nem os Letrados opprimaõ os Clientes com dilaçoens "nor let the lawyers oppress their clients with delays".^[11]

Semantic evolution

Vieira (1871) gives the Roman plebeian under a patrician first, then a person who entrusts his interests to another, said also of the parties before a judge.^[12] Figueiredo (1899) adds the patient who regularly sees the same doctor and the freguês of a shop, the customer.^[9] Today the commercial sense is the commonest: the buyer of a shop's goods, the user of a firm's services, the account holder of a bank.^[2][3] Brazilian Portuguese added the computing sense of a client in a client–server network.^[2][5] The sociological sense, a dependent member of a clientela, dates from about 1960.^[2]

Timeline

• 1561 – first record.^[2]
• 1706 – cliente in a private letter.^[13]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines it as a legal term and explains the Roman clientship.^[11]
• 1871 – Vieira gives the Roman sense and the client of a lawyer.^[12]
• 1899 – Figueiredo adds the doctor's patient and the shop's customer.^[9]
• 1960s – the sociological sense in Brazil.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) In ancient Rome, a person under the protection of a powerful citizen, the patron (patrono).^[2][3]
2. (history) In the Middle Ages, a person living under the protection of a noble.^[3]
3. A person who entrusts his or her interests to a lawyer, attorney or notary.^[2][5]
4. A patient who regularly consults the same doctor or dentist.^[2][5]
5. A customer who buys from a shop or uses a firm's services; freguês: A loja oferece um desconto aos clientes antigos.^[2][3][1]
6. The holder of an account at a bank.^[2][14]
7. (computing) A computer or program that uses the services of a servidor in a network.^[2][5]
8. (sociology, Brazil, pejorative) Each of the socially and economically dependent members of a clientela.^[2]

Related words

• clientela
• Latin cliēns
• French client

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cliente
3. ^ a b c d e 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. cliente
4. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cliente
5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cliente
6. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. cliente
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. client
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. cliēns
9. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 306
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cliens
11. ^ 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. cliente
12. ^ 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, 251
13. ^ 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. cliente
14. ^ 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. cliente