divórcio

Forms

divórcio m (plural divórcios)^[1] A dialect variant divorço has been recorded in Portugal.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dīvortium (“separation; divorce”), a learned word.^[1][3][4] Nascentes calls it semi-learned.^[5] The Latin noun is formed from dīvertō (“to go off, separate”).^[3][6] The OLD notes that the verb was usually spelt with o in Plautus's time.^[7] The verb is formed from dis- and vertō (“to turn”).^[1] In Latin the noun first meant a point where a road or a river branches, as well as the separation of a married couple.^[6][8]

The same Latin word is Spanish divorcio, Galician divorcio, Catalan divorci, Italian divorzio and Romanian divorț.^[1] French borrowed divorce in 1320.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to 1602, a date he takes from the sixth edition of Morais's dictionary, and Cunha puts it in the 17th century.^[3][4] The figurative sense of any break between people or groups is also dated to the 17th century by Houaiss.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Feijó (1734) explains the word as “separation of married people”.^[10] Vieira (1871) defines it as the separation of husband and wife in living together and in property by a judge's sentence, and adds the extended sense of a quarrel between spouses and the figurative sense of a break in friendship or partnership, as in estar em divórcio com “to be at odds with”.^[11] Aurélio defines it as the dissolution of the marriage bond that leaves both partners free to marry again, and refers to desquite, the legal separation.^[12]

Timeline

• 1602 – first record, according to Houaiss.^[3]
• 17th century – the figurative sense “rupture, disagreement”.^[3]
• 1734 – Feijó explains it as “separation of married people”.^[10]
• 1813 – first records of divorciar and divorciado.^[4]
• 1871 – Vieira records estar em divórcio com.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) divorce, the legal dissolution of a marriage before a judge: Pediram o divórcio depois de dez anos de casados.^[3][12][1]
2. (figurative) A disagreement or break between people, groups or abstract things: o divórcio entre a teoria e a prática.^[3][13]
3. separation, estrangement between people or things.^[3][14]

Word family

• divorciar
• divorciado

Related words

• divertir
• Latin dīvortium
• Spanish divorcio

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. divórcio
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. divórcio
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. divórcio
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. divórcio
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. divortium
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. diverto
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. divortium
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. divorce
10. ^ a b 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. divórcio
11. ^ 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, 1083
12. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. divórcio
13. ^ 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. divórcio
14. ^ 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. divórcio