feitoria

Forms

feitoria f (plural feitorias)^[1] Houaiss records the 15th-century spelling feyturia.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese feitor + -ia, that is, the office or house of a steward or agent.^[2][3][4][1] feitor was written Old Galician-Portuguese feytor in the 13th century and is from Latin factor (“maker, doer”), from faciō (“to do, make”) with the agent suffix -tor.^[5][1][6] In Medieval Latin the word already meant a commercial agent, as did the learned French facteur from 1326.^[7][8] Wiktionary notes that the Latin word is the source of English factor.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates feitoria to the 13th century, and Houaiss to the 15th, with the spelling feyturia, in the sense “the office of a steward”.^[3][2] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 glosses it with Latin procuratio “management”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the office the word passed to the house where the agent lived and kept and traded the goods in his charge.^[2] In the Portuguese expansion a feitoria was the trading post of the Crown or of a company in the ports of Africa and Asia, often fortified and with a few soldiers;^[2][10] Morais (1789) cites Resende's chronicle for it.^[2][10] The word then came to mean a colony that existed only for trade.^[2]

Other senses come from the verb fazer “to make”: feitoria is also the making of wine or olive oil, and in Portuguese dialects all the work of the wine press.^[2][11] In northern Brazil it is a clearing in the forest where workers sleep and keep their supplies, and in Amazonia a place on a river bank where fish is salted, a fishermen's hut, or the large-scale fishing of the pirarucu.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, according to Cunha.^[3]
• 15th century – feyturia, Houaiss's first record.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it as Latin procuratio.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records the trading houses of the factors in Asia and Africa.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The office of a feitor; the management carried out by a steward or agent.^[2][13]
2. (historical) A factory or trading post: a commercial agency, often fortified, in the ports of the Portuguese colonies, where goods were stored and traded.^[2][14][1]
3. A colony set up only for trade.^[2]
4. (obsolete) A small farm or rural property.^[2][15]
5. The making of wine or olive oil; a process used in making wine.^[2][16]
6. (northern Brazil) A clearing in the forest where workers spend the night and keep their supplies.^[2][17]
7. (Amazonas) A place on the bank of a river or lake where fish is salted; a small fishermen's hut; the large-scale fishing of the pirarucu.^[2][12]

Word family

• feitorizar

Related words

• feitor
• feito
• fazer
• Latin factor

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 q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. feitoria
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. feito
4. ^ 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, 630
5. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. feitor
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. factor
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. factor
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. facteur
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. feitoria
10. ^ a b c 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, 606
11. ^ 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. feitoria
12. ^ a b 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. feitoria
13. ^ 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. feitoria
14. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. feitoria
15. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. feitoria
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. feitoria
17. ^ 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. feitoria