fim

Forms

fim m (plural fins)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote fin, fim, ffin, ffim and fym.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fīnis (“boundary, limit; end”), written Old Galician-Portuguese fin and Old Galician-Portuguese fim in the oldest texts.^[3][4][1] Houaiss traces the popular development through ⟨fii⟩ to ⟨fi⟩, with the /n/ lost between vowels and the vowel left nasal.^[3] The Latin noun was both masculine and feminine;^[4][3][5] Old Portuguese used it as a feminine, which lasted through the whole medieval period and into the second half of the 16th century, although the masculine is found in some texts of the 15th century; modern Portuguese has fixed the masculine.^[4][3][5]

The same Latin word is Galician fin, Spanish fin, Catalan fi, Occitan fin, French fin, Italian fine and Romanian fine.^[6][1] Corominas calls the Spanish word a semi-learned descendant of the Latin.^[7]

The origin of the Latin noun is disputed.^[8][1] The OLD suggests ⟨*fig-snis⟩, from fīgō (“to fix”);^[8][1] Wiktionary gives that view, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stick, set up”), and a second one from ⟨*fidnis⟩, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”), whence findō (“to split”).^[8][1] The DHLF calls it of unknown origin.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it as a feminine: mui pret' é a vossa fin “your end is very near”.^[2] A charter of 1279 has áá fim de vos et de vossos fillos “at the end of you and your sons”, that is, after your death and theirs.^[2] The first records thus already mean “end” and “death”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Crónica Geral the word means “end, conclusion, death” and is always feminine (a fin do mũdo “the end of the world”); in the Milagres de Santiago a pilgrim fez boa fin “made a good end”, died well.^[2] Barbosa (1611) still notes that Latin finis is masculine or feminine.^[10] Bluteau (1712) remarks that the word Fim is now printed on the last page of books, as Finis in Latin ones.^[11] Morais (1813) notes that it was formerly feminine and lists fazer fim “to die”, and Figueiredo (1899) that it was feminine among the writers of the 16th century.^[12][13]

The sense “aim, purpose” was established by Morais's time.^[12] Modern compounds include fim de semana “weekend”, and Brazilian informal speech has estar a fim de “to feel like; to be keen on someone”.^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use fin as a feminine.^[2]
• 1279 – áá fim in a charter.^[2]
• 14th century – Houaiss's first record of the spelling fim.^[3]
• 1390 – a notarial register of Noia has a fim do dito tenpo “at the end of the said term”.^[2]
• c. 1400 – a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum (witness of 1380–1425) uses the word.^[14]
• 15th century – first masculine uses.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders fim with Latin finis and meta.^[15]
• 1712 – Bluteau describes the printing of Fim at the end of books.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais marks the word as formerly feminine.^[12]
• 1899 – Figueiredo notes the feminine of the 16th-century writers.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. end: the moment or point at which something stops: no fim do verão.^[3][16][1]
2. The last part of a book, film, speech and so on; the conclusion.^[3][16]
3. The furthest point, the limit: Chegou ao fim das suas forças.^[3][16]
4. The far end of a place: no fim do corredor.^[3][16]
5. The last period of a longer time (also in the plural): em fins do século XVIII.^[3]
6. Cessation; end, ruin: o fim de uma dinastia.^[3]
7. death.^[3][17]
8. Aim, purpose: Com que fim fizeste isso?^[3][16]
9. Cause, motive.^[3][16]

Word family

• finar
• finado
• finamento
• alfim

Related words

• final
• finalidade
• fino
• Latin finis
• Galician fin

Usage notes

Common phrases are fim de semana “weekend”, a fim de “in order to”, por fim “at last”, ao fim e ao cabo and no fim de contas “after all”, and fim do mundo “a remote place; a disaster”; the proverb o fim justifica os meios “the end justifies the means”.^[3][17]

The Mina-Jeje vocabulary of Ouro Preto (1741) has an unrelated word fim “to steal”, from Fon.^[18]

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 Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. fim
3. ^ 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. fim
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fim
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fim
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3315
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 900
8. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fin
10. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fim
11. ^ 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. fim
12. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 34
13. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 615
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. fim
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fim
16. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fim
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. fim
18. ^ Castro, Yeda Pessoa de (2002), A língua mina-jeje no Brasil: um falar africano em Ouro Preto do século XVIII, Belo Horizonte: Fundação João Pinheiro, p. 192