exato

Forms

exato (feminine exata, masculine plural exatos, feminine plural exatas)^[1] The older dictionaries write exacto, and Wiktionary lists exacto as an alternative spelling.^[2][1][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin exāctus (“driven out; finished, perfect; exact”), first recorded in 1650.^[2][1] Nascentes calls it semi-learned.^[4]

The Latin adjective is the past participle of exigō (“to drive out; to finish; to weigh exactly”), already used as an adjective “exact, scrupulous, precise”.^[2][5] The verb is made of ex- and agō (“to drive”).^[1] The same verb gave exigir, recorded from 1813.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record, exacto, to 1650, and a private letter of 1651 has exactas.^[2][7] Feijó (1734) glosses exácto as “careful, diligent”, and Bluteau's book of synonyms gives pontual and primoroso “punctual, fine”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Vieira (1871–1874) defines exacto as following truth or rule strictly, as in historiador exacto “a faithful historian”, and also as “severe, rigorous”.^[10] Figueiredo (1899) adds the sense “punctual” and that of a man who keeps good accounts.^[3] The original Caldas Aulete calls an honest man of good accounts exato, and a copy faithful to its model cópia exata.^[11]

Ciências exatas are the mathematical sciences.^[12][13] Exato! is used on its own as a reply, “exactly, quite so”.^[1]

Timeline

• 1650 – first record, spelt exacto.^[2]
• 1651 – exactas in a private letter.^[7]
• 1734 – Feijó glosses exácto as “careful, diligent”.^[8]
• 1789 – first record of the noun exactidão.^[14]
• 1858 – first record of inexacto.^[15]
• 1871 – Vieira defines exacto as strictly following truth or rule.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. exact, correct: free from error.^[2][12][1]
2. Very precise or rigorous, as a measurement.^[2][12][1]
3. Strictly punctual (pontual).^[2][13]
4. Perfect, careful in everything one does.^[2][12]
5. Faithful to the original or model, as a copy.^[2][16]
6. Accurate in reporting facts.^[2][16]

Interjection

1. exactly, precisely: used to agree with what has been said.^[1]

Word family

• exatamente
• exatidão
• inexato

Related words

• exigir
• Latin exāctus

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. exato
3. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 582
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. exato
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. exāctus
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. exigir
7. ^ 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. exato
8. ^ 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. exacto
9. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. exacto
10. ^ 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, 484
11. ^ 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. exato
12. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. exato
13. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. exato
14. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. exatidão
15. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. inexato
16. ^ 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. exato