compensar

Forms

compensar (first-person singular present compenso, first-person singular preterite compensei, past participle compensado)^[1] Fifteenth-century texts also write conpensar and cõpesar.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin compēnsō (“to weigh together, balance, make good”), a learned word first recorded in 1441.^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes notes that it came in by the learned route, without the sound changes of the inherited vocabulary.^[4]

The Latin verb is formed from com- (“together”) and pēnsō (“to weigh”),^[5][1] itself a frequentative of pendō (“to weigh, hang”).^[1] Houaiss explains the original sense as weighing two things together.^[2]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Galician compensar, Spanish compensar, Catalan compensar, French compenser and Italian compensare.^[1] The Spanish verb is also first recorded at the beginning of the 15th century,^[6] and the French one appears in the Dauphiné in the early 13th century and in its present form in 1277.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology has the oldest record, from 1441: que se deue compensar hũus pellos outros “that the ones must be offset against the others”.^[8] This is already the book-keeping sense of setting one amount against another, which Houaiss puts first: to bring two things into balance.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the verb was mostly a term of accounts, “to balance, make good, offset” a debt or deficit.^[5] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 glosses it with rependō (“to repay, weigh out in return”),^[9] and Barbosa (1611) equates it with recompensar and with Latin words for making good a loss.^[10]

Morais (1789) defines it as making amends for a harm done to someone, and adds the sense of one thing making up for what another lacks;^[11] his edition of 1813 adds the legal use compensar a divida, setting a debt off against a credit.^[12] Vieira (1871–1874) still treats it as a legal term, extended to anything that makes up for a loss or a hardship, and quotes Camões using it of long labours repaid.^[13]

In the 20th century the verb took technical senses: regulating a device so as to cancel known errors, correcting a magnetic compass, and in medicine helping an organism restore its balance.^[2][14] The intransitive use “to be worth it, pay off” is now very common in Brazil and Portugal.^[15][16][1]

Timeline

• 1441 – compensar “to offset” in Lorenzo's chronology.^[8]
• 15th century – the spellings conpensar and cõpesar.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary lists compensar.^[9]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives compensar as another word for recompensar.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as making amends for a harm done.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais adds compensar a divida, setting a debt against a credit.^[12]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira labels it a legal term and quotes Camões.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring into balance or restore the balance between two things;^[2][14] (reflexive) to balance each other out.^[2][14]
2. To offset a harm, loss or inconvenience with something of the opposite kind; to make up for: compensar a falta de experiência com esforço.^[2][15]
3. To compensate someone for a loss; to indemnify (indenizar).^[14][17][1]
4. (intransitive) To be worth it, to pay off: o esforço compensou.^[15][16][1]
5. (law) To settle reciprocal debts by setting one against the other.^[18][12]
6. (technology) To regulate a device or system so as to cancel known sources of error or improve its performance;^[2][14] (nautical) to correct a magnetic compass.^[2][14]
7. (medicine) To help an organism restore its physiological balance (equilíbrio).^[2]

Word family

• compensação
• compensado
• compensador
• compensatório
• compensável

Related words

• recompensar
• pensar
• pesar
• Latin compensō
• Spanish compensar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. compensar
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. compensação
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. compensar
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. compensō
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. compensar
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. compenser
8. ^ a b 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. compensar
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. compensar
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. compensar
11. ^ a b 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, 296
12. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 427
13. ^ 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, 349
14. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. compensar
15. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2262
16. ^ a b 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. compensar
17. ^ 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. compensar
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 377