diante

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin inante (“in front, forward”) with the preposition dē (“from”) put before it, first as Old Galician-Portuguese denante.^{[2][3][1][4][5]} The Late Latin word joins Latin in (“in”) and ante (“before”), and is found in Jerome, the Itinerarium Antonini and Egeria.^[1][6]

Houaiss and Cunha trace the change: the form of the 10th–11th centuries lost its intervocalic /n/, through a nasalised Old Galician-Portuguese *dẽante, and became Old Galician-Portuguese deante in the 13th century.^[2][3] Nascentes refers the ⟨i⟩ of the modern spelling to Gonçalves Viana's Ortografia nacional.^[4]

In Spanish the old Old Spanish denante became Spanish delante by dissimilation of the two nasals.^[2][7] The same compound is Galician diante, Mirandese delantre and Italian dinanzi, and the simple word is Romanian înainte.^[1][8] Porto Editora's dictionary routes the Portuguese word through the Spanish one, which the other sources do not.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's and Lorenzo's earliest dates, denant in 1025–1026 and deante in 1114, come from Latin charters; a charter of 1095 has ipso meo uallato deante illa ecclesia “my enclosure in front of that church”.^[2][10] In the Romance texts deãnte appears in the 13th century, as adverb and preposition.^[2] A document of 1381 has e quenquer que a deste dia en diante teuer “and whoever holds it from this day on”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) observes that the classical writers used it as a preposition without de (chegando diante ella “coming before her”) and also as an adverb.^[11] Bluteau (1712–1728) gives it as the opposite of detrás and also in the sense “in the presence of”.^[12] The old Caldas Aulete notes that old writers used it in all the senses of adiante, which had become the usual word.^[13]

Today the adverb is obsolete and the bare preposition rare; the word lives on in the locutions diante de “in front of, in the presence of; in view of” and em diante, por diante, para diante “from then on, henceforth”.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1025 – denant in a Latin charter, Houaiss's first date.^[2]
• 1095 – deante illa ecclesia in a Latin charter.^[10]
• 13th century – deãnte in Portuguese texts.^[2][3]
• 14th century – first record of the spelling diante.^[2][3]
• 1381 – deste dia en diante “from this day on” in a document.^[10]
• c. 1430 – used in the Horto do Esposo, its first text in the CTA corpus.^[14]
• 1538 – a private letter spells it diãte.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Diante by Latin coram and apud.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais comments on its use as a preposition without de.^[11]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos heads the word deante.^[17]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (obsolete) In front, ahead; the same as adiante.^[2][5]
2. em diante, por diante, para diante: from then on, henceforth: de amanhã em diante.^[2][5][18]
3. ir por diante: to go ahead, carry on.^[18][9]

Preposition

1. (rare) before, in front of, without de.^[2][5]
2. diante de: in front of; in the presence of: Falou diante de todos os vizinhos.^[2][5]
3. diante de: in view of, because of: Diante disso, mudou de ideias.^[2][5]

Word family

• adiante
• dianteira
• dianteiro

Related words

• ante
• antes
• Galician diante
• Spanish delante

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. diante
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. diante
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. diante
5. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. diante
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. inante
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 437
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. inante
9. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3131
10. ^ a b c d 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. diante
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, 435
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. diante
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. diante
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. diante
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. diante
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. diante
17. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. diante
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. diante