exército

Forms

exército m (plural exércitos)^[1] Before the spelling reforms the word was written without the accent, exercito, as in Bluteau's dictionary.^[2] A private letter of 1580 spells it exersito.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin exercitus (“army”), a learned word rather than one handed down by speech.^[4][5][6][1] Houaiss traces the Latin noun to the stem of the supine of exerceō (“to work at, keep busy”).^[4] The OLD analyses it as the verb with the action-noun suffix -tus, and gives its first sense as “physical exercise, exertion” beside “a military force”.^[7][1]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Spanish ejército, Catalan exèrcit and Italian esercito.^[8][1]

The verb is formed from ex- (“out of”) and arceō (“to contain, keep out”).^[7][1] De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic verb meaning “to contain, keep out” and a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to hold”, and compares ἀρκέω (arkéō, “to ward off, defend”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 15th century from the slips of Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[4] Cunha himself gives 1572 as his first date, in the sense of a body of troops.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defines the word as a large body of soldiers under the command of a general, and Feijó in 1734 as a great number of soldiers in the field with their general.^[2][10] Morais in 1813 records the figurative sense “great number”, besides the use for an army's camp.^[11] Figueiredo in 1899 has both the regular troops of a nation and any body of troops arrayed for war.^[12]

In the 20th century the word came to name the permanent land force of a state as an institution, written with a capital letter beside the navy and the air force.^[4][13][14] Aurélio describes this Brazilian institution under the authority of the president.^[4][13][14] The figurative “multitude” is still current.^[4][15]

Timeline

• 1400s – first record, in the slips of Cunha's medieval index.^[4]
• 1572 – Cunha's first date for the word.^[5]
• 1580 – exersito in a private letter.^[3]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines exercito as a large body of soldiers under a general.^[2]
• 1813 – Morais records the figurative sense “great number”.^[11]
• 1899 – Figueiredo derives the word from Latin exercitus, from exercere.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The land armed forces of a nation, as an institution; written with a capital letter: o Exército português.^[4][16][17]
2. (military) A large unit of land forces made up of several divisions.^[4][17]
3. The troops that take part in a battle or campaign; an army in the field.^[4][13][15]
4. (figurative) A great number of people, a multitude: um exército de voluntários.^[4][15][18]

Related words

• exercer
• exercício
• Latin exercitus
• Spanish ejército

Usage notes

Houaiss and Michaelis record the set names Exército de Salvação “Salvation Army”, a religious and charitable organisation with a military hierarchy, and exército de ocupação “army of occupation”.^[4][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. exército
3. ^ 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. exército
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. exército
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. exército
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. exército
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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. ejército
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. ^ 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. exército
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 797
12. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. exército
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. exército
14. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. exército
15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. exército
16. ^ 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. exército
17. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4079
18. ^ 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. exército