embaixador

Forms

embaixador m (plural embaixadores)^[1] Old spellings are anbaixador and embaxador (14th century).^[2][3] The feminine embaixadora is a woman ambassador, embaixatriz the wife of an ambassador.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French ambassadeur, according to Houaiss and Cunha.^[2][3] Houaiss dates the French word to 1366 and calls it a loan from Italian ambasciatore (13th century).^[2] Aurélio and the Academia's dictionary also give the French and Italian words.^[4][5] Porto Editora derives it from Old Occitan ambaissador through Italian, and Wiktionary from the Old Occitan word directly.^[6][1] Silva Bastos and Figueiredo derived it from embaixada.^[7][8]

Nocentini explains the Italian word as a borrowing of the Occitan noun, meaning “servant”, the agent noun of ambaisar (“to serve”), from Medieval Latin ambactia, a Medieval Latin word.^[9] Wiktionary traces the Occitan family to Proto-Germanic *ambahtaz (“servant”), which Kroonen calls a loan from Celtic, Gaulish ambaxtos (“vassal”).^[1][10] Kroonen analyses the Celtic word as “one who goes around”, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi (“around”) and a form of *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”), and notes that it entered Germanic after the sound shifts.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology quotes the Crónica of 1344: o emperador … ẽvyou suas cartas por seus embaxadores a el rey, “the emperor sent his letters to the king by his ambassadors”.^[11] A text of 1427 writes enbaixador.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) glosses the word with Latin legatus and caduceator, a herald.^[12] Vieira (1871) defines it as a public minister sent by a sovereign with credentials, and distinguishes the ordinary ambassador, who resides at a court, from the extraordinary one sent on a temporary mission.^[13] Figueiredo also records the name of a popular game.^[8] In the Brazilian diplomatic service it is the title of a minister of the first class, and it is used figuratively for any emissary.^[2][4] The Academia's dictionary and Priberam add a person who represents a field of culture or a humanitarian cause.^[5][14]

Timeline

• 1344 – embaxadores in the Crónica of 1344.^[11]
• 14th century – the spelling anbaixador.^[2]
• 15th century – embaixador, in Fernão Lopes among others.^[2][11]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it legatus.^[12]
• 1813 – first date of embaixatriz.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira describes the ordinary and the extraordinary ambassador.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ambassador, the highest rank of diplomatic representative of a state to another state or to an international body.^[2][4][1]
2. (Brazil, diplomacy) The title of a minister of the first class in the diplomatic career.^[2][4]
3. Any person entrusted with a mission; an emissary, a messenger.^[2][14]
4. A person who represents a cultural or humanitarian cause.^[5][14]

Word family

• embaixatriz

Related words

• embaixada
• French ambassadeur
• Italian ambasciatore

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. embaixador
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. embaixador
4. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. embaixador
5. ^ a b c 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. embaixador
6. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3399
7. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. embaixador
8. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 478
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. embaxador
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. embaixador
13. ^ 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. 3, 45
14. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. embaixador