escrivão

Forms

escrivão m (plural escrivães, feminine escrivã, feminine plural escrivãs)^[1] Houaiss records escriuan, escriuam and escriuã in the 13th century and the plural scriuaens in 1567.^[2] In a cantiga of Alfonso X the plural is escrivãos in one songbook and escrivães in another.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin scrība, -ānis (“clerk, scribe”), the Latin noun moved from the first declension into the third, and was written Old Galician-Portuguese escrivan in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] Machado and Cunha start instead from scrībānus, which Houaiss says explains the singular and the old form Old Galician-Portuguese escribano well; but only the third-declension accusative plural in ⟨-ānēs⟩ explains the plural ⟨escrivães⟩.^[2] Nascentes also takes the plural as proof of the third-declension form.^[4]

The same Latin form is Galician escribán, Spanish escribano, Catalan escrivà, Occitan escrivan, French écrivain and Italian scrivano.^[1][5] The French word, first escrivein about 1120, meant “scribe, copyist”.^[6][2] escriba is its learned doublet.^[1]

The classical noun is formed from scrībō (“to write”) with the agent suffix -a.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is escribano, dated 1188–1230 after Machado.^[2] The usual 13th-century form is escriuan.^[2] In a cantiga d'escarnho Alfonso X has someone who complains to him “many times about the clerks”, queixa-se-m' ele muitas vegadas / dos escrivães.^[3] A rubric of the Cantigas de Santa Maria tells how a king gave a clerk's office in a town, ũa escrivania dũa vila, to one of his servants.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 gives the Latin scriba and tabellio, and lists the escrivão das notas (notary) and the clerks of the civil and the criminal courts.^[9] Morais defines him as the officer of justice who writes the records of a case before a magistrate or court.^[10] In the age of the discoveries the escrivão of a fleet kept the record of the voyage: Aulete's example is Pero Vaz de Caminha, the clerk of Cabral's fleet.^[11]

The escrivão da puridade was the private secretary of the king or of a great lord.^[12][13] Jocular speech made the street sweeper an escrivão da pena grande in Portugal and an escrivão da pena larga in Brazil, “clerk of the big pen”, that is, of the broom.^[12][14] In Brazil the name was also given to a fish, the carapicu.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 1188–1230 – escribano, Houaiss's first record, after Machado.^[2]
• 13th century – escriuan, escriuam, escriuã.^[2]
• 13th century – Alfonso X's cantiga d'escarnho with escrivães.^[3]
• 1544 – the plural esprivãos in a private letter.^[15]
• 1567 – the plural scriuaens.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists the escrivão das notas.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais defines him as an officer of justice.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) A court or registry clerk, the officer in charge of a registry who writes or signs records, minutes and documents with public faith.^[2][14][1]
2. (law) An official who records in writing the acts done before the authority he assists: O escrivão leu o depoimento em voz alta.^[2][11]
3. (dated) A scribe, copyist or notary; a tabelião.^[12][17]
4. (history, nautical) The officer who kept the written record of a voyage.^[11]
5. (Brazil, ichthyology) The fish carapicu (genus Eucinostomus).^[2][14]
6. (popular, entomology) A beetle that attacks vines.^[12][17]

Word family

• escrivania

Related words

• escrever
• escritor
• escriba
• Galician escribán
• Spanish escribano

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 m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. escrivão
3. ^ 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. escrivão
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. escrivão
5. ^ 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, p. s.v. escribano
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. écrivain
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. scrība
8. ^ 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. estorvar
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escrivão
10. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 743
11. ^ a b c 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. escrivão
12. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. escrivão
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. escrivão
14. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. escrivão
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. escrivão
16. ^ 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, 36
17. ^ a b 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. escrivão