concurso

Forms

concurso m (plural concursos)^[1] Houaiss records concursu in 1552, concursso in 1560 and cõcurssu in 1570.^[2] A private letter of 1556 writes comcruso.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin concursus (“a running together, a gathering”), a learned word.^[2][4][1][5] Houaiss dates the word to 1570, with an earlier spelling in 1552.^[2][4] Cunha has 1570.^[2][4]

The Latin noun is formed from concurrō (“to run together, flock”) with the suffix -tus.^[6][1] The same Latin word was borrowed as Spanish concurso, French concours, Italian concorso and Romanian concurs.^[1][7]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712) gives only the sense “a crowd of people gathering in one place”, with Cicero's concursus hominum and an example about feasts celebrated with a great concurso of men and women.^[8] Morais (1789) adds a competitive sense: a literary contest, the rivalry of candidates for a post or of any claimants to something.^[9] Vieira (1871) quotes the preacher António Vieira, from Bluteau: o segundo concurso foi de Dimas, e Gestas, of the two thieves crucified with Christ.^[10] By 1899 Figueiredo lists cooperation, a contest, and the examinations taken by candidates for a post or a concession.^[11]

Houaiss's examples of the competitive sense range from examinations for civil servants to beauty contests and poetry prizes.^[2] Law and geometry use the older sense of meeting: the concurso de credores of several creditors with claims on the same debtor, and the intersection of two lines.^[2]

Timeline

• 1552 – first record, spelt concursu.^[2]
• 1556 – comcruso in a private letter.^[3]
• 1570 – first record of the spelling cõcurssu, and Houaiss's date for the word.^[2][4]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines it as a gathering of people.^[8]
• 1789 – Morais adds the sense of a literary contest or competition for a post.^[9]
• 1871 – Vieira gives the Latin source.^[10]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the examinations for posts and concessions.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of converging (concorrer); a gathering of many people in one place, an influx.^[2][12]
2. A chance meeting of several events: um feliz concurso de acasos.^[2]
3. The fact of two or more things meeting at one point: the confluence of two rivers, the meeting of two vowels.^[2][12]
4. cooperation, a share in a common undertaking: Contou com o concurso de vários colegas.^[2][13]
5. A competition or contest by tests or examinations among candidates for a post, a title, an admission, a prize or a concession.^[2][1][14]
6. (geometry) The intersection of lines.^[2][14]
7. (law) The claim of two or more persons to the same right.^[2]

Related words

• concorrer
• concorrência
• concorrente
• Latin concursus
• French concours

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 n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. concurso
3. ^ 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. concurso
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cordo
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. concurso
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. concurso
8. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. concurso
9. ^ 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, 305
10. ^ 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, 383
11. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. concurso
12. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. concurso
13. ^ 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. concurso
14. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. concurso