crédito

Forms

crédito m (countable and uncountable, plural créditos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin crēditum (“a loan; something entrusted”), with the senses “belief, trust”, first recorded in the 15th century.^[2][3][4] Cunha, Nascentes and Aurélio add that in the commercial sense the word came directly from Italian credito.^[3][4][5][1] Wiktionary derives the whole word from the Italian.^[3][4][5][1]

The Latin noun is the neuter of crēditus, the past participle of crēdō (“to entrust; to believe”).^[6][1] Nocentini dates the Italian word to 1309–1310.^[7] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *krezde/o- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱred-dʰeh₁- (“to place (in?) the heart”), hence “to believe”, with cognates in Celtic such as Old Irish creitid.^[8][1]

The Galician word for “credit, good name” is Galician creto, from the same Latin word.^[9] Spanish has crédito.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 15th century, in the sense “confidence in the truth of something, trust”.^[2][3] It is frequent in 16th-century private letters, the first of 1541.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defines the word as the faith given to something, with phrases such as isto excede todo o credito “this is past all belief”.^[12] Morais (1813) adds “esteem, authority”, the reputation of a man who can pay and so “has credit”, and the letters of credit sent by a correspondent.^[13] Figueiredo (1899) already lists the right to receive what one has lent, the merchant's balance due, and the parliament's authorisation of public spending.^[14]

Later senses are the credits of a film or book, and the unit of a university course.^[2][5] Wiktionary records the science-fiction currency unit as a loan of sense from English credit.^[1]

Timeline

• 1400s – first records, in the sense “trust, belief”.^[2][3]
• 1541 – credito in a private letter.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives the sense “faith given to something”.^[12]
• 1734 – Feijó's Orthographia pairs crédito with the spelling credeto.^[15]
• 1813 – Morais records the commercial senses and letters of credit.^[13]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the parliament's authorisation of expenditure.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. trust, belief in someone's qualities or in the truth of something: Essa história não merece crédito.^[2][5][16]
2. Good name, reputation (reputação); authority, influence: ter crédito junto do ministro.^[2][5]
3. (administration) An authorisation of expenditure, especially one granted to a government by parliament.^[2][16]
4. (commerce) A purchase paid for in instalments; time allowed for payment: comprar a crédito.^[2][17]
5. (banking) A loan agreement, and the sum lent under it.^[2][16]
6. (accounting, law) What a merchant or institution is owed; the right to receive what one has lent.^[2][18]
7. (usually in the plural) The list of people and institutions who took part in a film, programme or book.^[2][5]
8. A unit of a university course, counted towards a degree.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• acreditar
• descrédito
• desacreditar
• creditício

Related words

• crer
• credor
• creditar
• Latin crēditum
• Italian credito

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. crédito
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. crer
4. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. crédito
5. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. crédito
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. creto
10. ^ 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
11. ^ 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. crédito
12. ^ 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. crédito
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 492
14. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. crédito
15. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. crédito
16. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. crédito
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. crédito
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2556