espaço

Forms

espaço m (plural espaços)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese also wrote spaço.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spatium (“racecourse; open space, extent; interval”), written Old Galician-Portuguese espaço and Old Galician-Portuguese spaço in the oldest texts.^[4][2][1][5] García de Diego counts the Portuguese and Galician word among the inherited outcomes, while he treats the Spanish one as a learned word.^[6] Corominas calls the Spanish word semi-learned.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Galician espazo, Spanish espacio, Catalan espai, French espace and Italian spazio.^[8][1]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain: de Vaan considers a derivative of *sph₁-to- (“prospered, fattened”), hence “extended”, possible but unprovable, and finds a link with pateō (“to be open”) difficult.^[9][1] Figueiredo (1899) had suggested the same root as the Latin verb.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the medieval chronicles the word is mostly temporal: the Crónica Troiana uses it for time given to do something, and the Crónica Geral for a respite or delay (nõ llj derõ outrosi grande espaço “nor did they give him much time either”).^[3] The Miragres de Santiago have por espaço de quatorze anos “for a period of fourteen years”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The temporal sense “interval, period, delay” and the spatial “extent, room, distance” have lived side by side since the Middle Ages.^[3] Barbosa's 1611 dictionary notes that the Latin word is said both of place and of time.^[11][4] Morais (1813) records de espaço “slowly, at leisure” and the printer's space, the piece that separates words in the composing stick.^[12] Houaiss and Aulete also give the infinite extent containing all bodies, the universe beyond the Earth's atmosphere, and the specialised senses of mathematics, physics and Kantian philosophy.^[4][13] The 20th century brought espacial and compounds such as espaçonave and ciberespaço.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record.^[4][2]
• c. 1430 – espaço in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin spatium.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa notes the use of espaço of both place and time.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais records the printer's espaço.^[12]
• 20th century – first record of espacial.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The boundless extent that contains all bodies and all finite extents; space.^[4][16][1]
2. The distance between two points or lines; a limited area or volume.^[4][17]
3. room, capacity: Não há espaço para mais ninguém no carro.^[4][17]
4. The universe; the region beyond the Earth's atmosphere, outer space.^[4][18][1]
5. A place or venue for an activity.^[19][18]
6. Opportunity, room (for something to happen).^[4]
7. A period or interval of time; a delay.^[4][20][1]
8. A field of knowledge or activity: espaço cultural.^[4]
9. (printing) The blank between words; the piece of type metal that makes it.^[4][20][1]
10. (mathematics, physics) A set with certain operations; the geometric frame in which physical phenomena take place.^[4][1]
11. (music) The gap between two lines of the stave.^[4][18]

Word family

• espaçar
• espacial
• espaçoso
• espaçonave
• espaçonauta
• espaço-tempo
• ciberespaço
• subespaço
• aeroespaço

Related words

• Latin spatium
• Spanish espacio
• Spanish despacio
• Galician espazo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. espaço
3. ^ 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. espaço
4. ^ 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. espaço
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. espaço
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. spatium
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 731
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8129
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. spatium
10. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. espaço
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. espaço
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 753
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. espaço
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. espaço
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. espaço
16. ^ 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. espaço
17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. espaço
18. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3857
19. ^ 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. espaço
20. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. espaço