experiência

Forms

experiência f (plural experiências)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin experientia (“trial, test; experience gained, practice”), first recorded in the 14th century.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun is formed from experiēns, the present participle of experior (“to try, put to the test”), with the suffix -ia.^[5][4] The verb is made of ex- and an unattested *perior, found also in opperior (“to wait for”), and is related to perīculum (“trial, danger”) and to Ancient Greek πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt”).^[6][7]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Galician experiencia, Spanish experiencia, Catalan experiència, French expérience, Italian esperienza and Romanian experiență.^[1] The French word is dated about 1265, and the Spanish one about 1400, when it is written Old Spanish espiriencia.^[7][8] Spanish wavered between ⟨exper-⟩ and ⟨esper-⟩ through the 16th and 17th centuries.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the noun to the 14th century from the slips of Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2][3] Cunha's dictionary gives the 15th century.^[2][3] The first sense in Houaiss is “the act of trying something out”, and an old text that Morais quotes has metter em experiencia “to put to the test”.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines knowledge of particular effects gained by repeated trials and proofs.^[10] Morais (1813) separates the scientific trial, made with instruments and machines to establish a physical truth, from the knowledge that comes from dealing with people, the reading of history and plain observation of nature, and quotes the Lusíadas on hum saber só de experiências feito “a knowledge made of experience alone”.^[9]

Today the word covers a scientific experiment, practical skill gained over time, and in philosophy knowledge acquired through the senses.^[2][11][1] In north-eastern Brazil the experiência de Santa Luzia is a folk forecast of the year's rain made with grains of salt left out on the eve of Saint Lucy's day.^[12]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record.^[2]
• 1599 – experiencia in a private letter.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines knowledge gained by repeated trials.^[10]
• 1734 – Feijó sets the spelling experiencia against the faulty expriencia.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais defines a trial made to establish a truth.^[15]
• 1813 – Morais adds the knowledge gained from life and quotes the Lusíadas.^[9]
• 1899 – Figueiredo defines a practical test to discover a phenomenon or establish a theory.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of trying something out; a trial, a test: Fez a experiência de dormir sem almofada.^[2][17]
2. A scientific experiment: uma experiência de química.^[2][11][1]
3. Knowledge or skill gained by practice over time: Ela tem muita experiência no ensino.^[2][18][11]
4. (philosophy) Knowledge acquired through the senses.^[2][19]
5. Something one has lived through: A viagem foi uma experiência inesquecível.^[1][20]

Word family

• experienciar
• inexperiência

Related words

• experiente
• experimentar
• experimento
• experto
• perito
• perigo
• Latin experientia

Usage notes

À experiência means “on trial, provisionally”.^[19] The dialects of Portugal also have the form experiença.^[21]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. experiência
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. experiência
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. experiência
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. experientia
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. experior
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. expérience
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 825
9. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 799
10. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. experiência
11. ^ a b c 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. experiência
12. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. experiência
13. ^ 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. experiência
14. ^ 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. experiência
15. ^ 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, 584
16. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 587
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. experiência
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. experiência
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4093
20. ^ 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. experiência
21. ^ 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. experiência