comissão

Forms

comissão f (plural comissões)^[1] Houaiss records comision and comisom in 1386 and comissam in the 15th century.^[2] Until the spelling reforms the word was written commissão, the form under which Morais (1789) and Figueiredo (1899) enter it.^[3][4][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin commissio (“a committing; a commission”), from the stem of commissum, the supine of committō (“to bring together; to entrust”).^[2][1] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing, while Nascentes describes it as semi-learned.^[1][5] The Latin noun is formed from the verb with the suffix -tiō; in classical Latin it meant the opening or holding of games and contests.^[6][1] Medieval Latin used it for a mission or mandate, a lease and the forfeiture of a fief, the senses closest to the Portuguese word.^[7]

The same Latin word was taken into Galician comisión, Spanish comisión, Catalan comissió, Italian commissione and French commission.^[1] The Spanish word is first recorded in 1438.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records, of 1386, already show the word in the sense of a body of people charged with a task, besides the general sense of the act of entrusting something to someone.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) translates comissão with Latin mandatum and Pereira (1697) with delegatio, that is, a charge given to someone.^[9][10] Morais (1789) adds the commercial sense, the percentage paid for buying or selling goods on another's behalf, the delegated jurisdiction of a magistrate, the theological peccado de commissão (a sin of doing what is forbidden, as opposed to one of omission) and a board of ministers appointed to examine a matter.^[3] Figueiredo (1899) also lists a letter of marque.^[4]

Modern dictionaries add the committees into which the members of a legislature divide, and in Brazilian administrative usage the temporary filling of a post by a civil servant already on the staff.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1386 – first records, spelt comision and comisom.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling comissam.^[2]
• 1576 – a private letter writes comiçam.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary lists Comissão, translated mandatum.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais enters commissão with the commercial, legal and theological senses.^[3]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the sense “letter of marque”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of entrusting or charging someone with something; the task so entrusted, a charge or assignment.^[2][13]
2. A payment or percentage paid to an agent, broker or salesperson on the business done; a commission.^[2][14]
3. A post or function held temporarily;^[2][15] (Brazil, administration) the temporary filling of a post by a civil servant already on the staff.^[2][15]
4. A group of people appointed to carry out a task, study a matter or give an opinion; a committee (comitê): A comissão de moradores reuniu-se ontem.^[2][11][1]
5. Each of the committees into which the members of a legislative chamber divide to examine bills.^[2][11]
6. (law) A mandate or jurisdiction that one magistrate delegates to another.^[2][14]
7. (dated) A letter of marque.^[13][14]

Word family

• comissionar
• comissionado

Related words

• cometer
• comissário
• comitê
• Latin commissio
• Spanish comisión

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. comissão
3. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 292
4. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. commissão
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. comissão
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. commissio
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. commissio
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. comisión
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. comissão
10. ^ 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. comissão
11. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. comissão
12. ^ 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. comissão
13. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. comissão
14. ^ a b c 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. comissão
15. ^ 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. comissão