estação

Forms

estação f (plural estações)^[1] Medieval texts write estaçõ and estaçom in the 14th century and estação from the 15th.^[2][3] A letter of 1591 spells it estasão, and estaçã is a regional form in Portugal.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin statiō (“a standing still; post, station”), a learned word according to Wiktionary.^[1] Houaiss and Cunha derive it from the Latin noun, and Houaiss lists its senses “state of rest; dwelling, halting place; post, anchorage; meeting place; stable”, with “a prayer said standing” in Church Latin.^[2][3]

The Latin noun is formed from stō (“to stand; to halt”) with the suffix -tiō.^[6][7] Nascentes points out that the sense “season” was already latent in Latin phrases for winter quarters.^[8]

Spanish estación is a borrowing of the same Latin word, recorded from 1335.^[9] Inherited forms survive in Italy: Italian stagione “season” and Italian stazzo “stay, standstill”.^[10] The REW also considers French saison, with loss of the first t by dissimilation, but leaves open a derivation from satiō (“sowing”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 14th century, spelt estaçom, in the sense “a stop or pause in a place”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Vieira (1871–1874) records it for a branch of the public finance administration and for each of the four seasons of the year.^[11] Figueiredo (1899) gives the stopping place of trains and carriages, a port where a ship stays, a police post and a public office, as well as the seasons.^[12] The original Caldas Aulete illustrates the railway sense with the D. Pedro II station and the maritime station of Alcântara in Lisbon.^[13] Silva Bastos (1912) adds visits of devotion to churches and the act of standing.^[14]

The religious senses include the stops of a procession and the fourteen Stations of the Cross.^[2] Modern uses include radio and television stations, research stations and resorts, as in estação de águas “spa”.^[2] The derivatives came late: estacionar and estacionário in 1813, estacionamento and estacional in 1881.^[3] Tetum has estasaun from the Portuguese word.^[1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records, spelt estaçom.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the spelling estação.^[2]
• 1591 – estasão in a private letter.^[4]
• 1813 – first records of estacionar and estacionário.^[3]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira records the four seasons and a branch of public administration.^[11]
• 1881 – first records of estacionamento and estacional.^[3]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the stopping place of trains.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stop or stay in a place; a halt.^[2][15]
2. A station: a stopping place where trains, buses or ships take on and set down passengers or goods: Encontramo-nos na estação às oito.^[2][15][1]
3. (religion) A stop for prayer before an altar or image; each of the fourteen Stations of the Cross.^[2]
4. A season: each of the four parts of the year, primavera, verão, outono and inverno.^[2][16][1]
5. The time of year when something usually happens.^[2][16]
6. A public office or post: estação de correios.^[2][15][1]
7. A station for scientific research or experiments.^[2]
8. A place visited for health or leisure; a resort: estação de águas “spa”.^[2]
9. (radio, television) A broadcasting station.^[2][15]

Word family

• estacionar
• estacionário
• estacionamento
• estacional
• subestação

Related words

• estar
• estância
• Latin statiō
• Spanish estación

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estação
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. estação
4. ^ a b 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. estação
5. ^ 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. estação
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. statiō
7. ^ 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. stō
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. estação
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. estar
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. statio
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. 3, 383
12. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 561
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. estação
14. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. estação
15. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. estação
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. estação