escritura

Forms

escritura f (plural escrituras)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote escritura and scritura in the 13th century, and escriptura appears in the 15th.^[2][3] Feijó in 1734 still preferred the spelling escriptura.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin scrīptūra (“writing; a written text”), written Old Galician-Portuguese escritura and Old Galician-Portuguese scritura in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes considers it semi-learned.^[5]

The same Latin word is Spanish escritura, Catalan escriptura, French écriture and Italian scrittura.^[6][1]

The noun is formed from Latin scrībō (“to write”) + -tūra.^[1][7] In Church Latin it came to mean Holy Scripture, as well as written law and a charter.^[8] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *skreybʰ- (“to carve, scratch”).^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use the word for a book or written source (segun diz a escritura “as the writing says”) and for Holy Scripture, as Sant'Escritura.^[10] The Galician Crónica Troiana uses it for the story being told: de que a escritura fala “of which the story speaks”.^[10] Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From “a writing” and “Scripture” the word moved into law: Barbosa in 1611 glosses escritura with the Latin for a written bond or contract, and Folqman in 1755 gives “a thing done by public deed” beside “the act of writing” and Escritura Sagrada “the Bible”.^[11][12] Morais in 1813 defines it as an authentic paper that contains obligations, sales, contracts and gifts made with due formalities.^[13] Aulete's first edition also records the escritura teatral, the contract by which an actor or singer was engaged by a theatre.^[14]

The sense “handwriting” is old as well; in the 20th century the word took on the literary sense of a writer's personal use of written language, and in philosophy it translates Derrida's écriture.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, as escritura and scritura.^[2][3]
• 13th century, second half – the Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of a Sant'Escritura.^[10]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) has escritura.^[15]
• 15th century – the spelling escriptura appears.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses the word as a written bond.^[11]
• 1734 – Feijó prefers the spelling escriptura.^[4]
• 1813 – Morais defines the notarial deed.^[13]
• 20th century – the literary sense “a writer's way of writing”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) A deed: the written form of a legal act, drawn up by a notary (notário), especially of a sale of property: escritura de compra e venda.^[2][16][1]
2. Writing (escrita); a system or manner of writing.^[2][17]
3. A person's handwriting.^[2][18]
4. (literature) A writer's way of using written language, his or her style: a escritura dos modernistas.^[2][16]
5. (religion, often capitalised and in the plural) The Scriptures, the books of the Bible;^[2][19][1] Sagrada Escritura “Holy Scripture”.^[2][19][1]
6. (philosophy) In Derrida, the play of differences that produces meaning in any discourse, spoken or written.^[2]

Word family

• escriturar
• escriturário

Related words

• escrever
• escrito
• escritor
• escrita
• Spanish escritura

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. escritura
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. escritura
4. ^ 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. escritura
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. escritura
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7746a
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. scriptura
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. scriptura
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c 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. escritura
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escritura
12. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escritura
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 743
14. ^ 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. escritura
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. escritura
16. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. escritura
17. ^ 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. escritura
18. ^ 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. escritura
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3811