contrato

Forms

contrato m (plural contratos)^[1] The old texts write cõtratu (13th century), contrauto (1331), contrayto (1340), contrabto (1418) and contrato (15th century).^[2][3] Before the spelling reforms the word was also written contracto.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin contractus (“agreement, bargain”), the noun formed on the participle of contrahō (“to draw together; to conclude a bargain”).^[2][5][1][6] Nascentes calls it semi-learned, and the medieval spellings Old Galician-Portuguese contrauto and Old Galician-Portuguese contrayto show the cluster treated in the popular way.^[3][2] The inherited outcome of the Latin participle is the adjective contreito “crippled”, Galician as well as Portuguese.^[7][8] Galician contrato, Spanish contrato, French contrat and Italian contratto go back to the same Latin noun.^[1][9]

The Latin verb is formed from con- and trahō (“to draw, pull”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates cõtratu to the 13th century from Cunha's medieval index.^[2] Cunha himself dates the word to the 14th, and gives its first sense as “agreement”, later extended to the document that records it.^[2][5] A notarial book of Santiago de Compostela has Feito e outorgado o dito contrauto “the said contract made and granted”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 renders the word with Latin pactum, conventio and contractus, and lists contratador.^[11] In the colonial economy a contrato was also a royal monopoly farmed out by auction: Morais in 1789 gives the contracts for tobacco, soap, diamonds and brazilwood as examples.^[12] The verb contratar is recorded from 1452, spelt comtraytar.^[13]

Brazil gave the word a local sense, the station where whales were cut up and their oil was made.^[2][14] In Portuguese-speaking Africa it named the forced labour that the colonial administration organised for large companies, called chibalo in Mozambique.^[14] In the Folia de Reis it is the performer who sings the lowest part.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – cõtratu.^[2]
• 1331 – contrauto; 1340 – contrayto.^[2]
• 1418 – contrabto.^[2]
• 1452 – the verb comtraytar (contratar).^[13]
• 1537 – cõtrato in a private letter.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists Contrato;^[16][5] contratador is recorded the same year.^[16][5]
• 1789 – Morais records the monopoly contracts for tobacco and brazilwood.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A contract: an agreement between two or more parties who bind themselves to do or give something on agreed terms.^[2][14][1]
2. (law) An agreement creating, transferring, modifying or ending rights and obligations.^[2][6]
3. The document that records such an agreement.^[2][14]
4. (Brazil) A place where caught whales were cut up and their oil extracted.^[2][14]
5. (Africa, historical) Forced labour organised by the colonial administration for private or state companies.^[14]
6. (music, dance) In the Folia de Reis, the performer who sings the lowest voice.^[2]

Word family

• contratar
• contratual
• contratante
• contratador

Related words

• contrair
• contreito
• Latin contractus
• Spanish contrato

Usage notes

As an adjective, contrato “contracted” (said of a vowel or form in phonetics) is a Brazilian spelling of contracto, from the same Latin participle.^[14][1][2]

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 p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. contrato
3. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. contrato
4. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. contrato
5. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. contrato
6. ^ 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. contrato
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. contractus
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2188
9. ^ 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. contrato
10. ^ 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. contrauto
11. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. contrato
12. ^ 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, 324
13. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. contratar
14. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. contrato
15. ^ 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. contrato
16. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. contrato