Etymologically
Log in

força

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word força

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s Cancioneiro da Ajuda More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin fortia
Ultimate origin
Latin fortis
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin fortis
French fort
English forte
Romanian fort
Italian forte
Portuguese forte
Spanish fuerte
Latin fortia
French force
Romanian forță
Italian forza
Portuguese força
Spanish fuerza
Derivations
From the same root
Latin cōnfortō ← fortis
Latin fortificō ← fortis
Latin fortiter ← fortis
Latin fortitūdō ← fortis
French forteresse ← fort
Italian pianoforte ← forte
Italian forzare ← forza

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈfoʁ.sɐ/, [ˈfoh.sɐ][1]
  • São-Paulo: /ˈfoɾ.sɐ/[1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /ˈfoʁ.sɐ/, [ˈfoχ.sɐ][1]
  • Caipira: /ˈfoɻ.sɐ/[1]

Forms

força f (plural forças)[1] Wiktionary lists the older spelling fôrça, with the circumflex marking the closed vowel /o/.[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin fortia (“strength”), written Old Galician-Portuguese força in the oldest texts.[3][4][1] The Late Latin noun is the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong, brave”) used as a noun.[3][5] Houaiss explains that it first meant “deeds of strength or courage”, spread through the language of the Church with the sense “strength” and passed into the Romance languages as a feminine noun;[3][1] Wiktionary adds that it was taken from Latin phrases meaning “brave deeds”.[3][1] The glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda compares the formation with that of grātia from grātīs.[6]

The same Late Latin noun is Galician forza, Spanish fuerza, Catalan força, French force and Italian forza.[7][8][1]

The origin of the Latin adjective is uncertain.[9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *forkti- and considers Proto-Indo-European *bʰorǵʰ-to- (“stuffed”) or *dʰorǵʰ-to- (“strong, robust”), both with a question mark;[9][1] Wiktionary names the roots *bʰerǵʰ- (“high”) and *dʰerǵʰ- (“to make fast”).[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 13th-century Cancioneiro da Ajuda força means “violence”: prender força is to suffer violence, and a força de or por força “against the will (of)”, in a cantiga about a lady carried off.[6] A cantiga d'amigo has a força de mi “with great effort on my part”.[6] The Crónica Troiana uses it for physical strength and for effort.[6]

Semantic evolution

From physical strength and violence the word extended to power, effort and moral energy, and to a body of armed men.[3][10] Cardoso (1569) glosses it with Latin vis and violentia, and Folqman (1755) lists the legal dar uma força “to complain of violence suffered”.[11][12] The physical sense “cause that changes a body's motion” is recorded by the modern dictionaries.[3][13] In north-eastern Brazil a força is the police or any armed troop.[14] In colloquial speech it also means electric power, and as an interjection it wishes someone strength.[1]

Timeline

  • 13th century – força in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and the cantigas d'amigo.[6][4]
  • 13th century – first records of forçar, esforçar and esforço.[4]
  • c. 1350 – the earliest CTA text with the word, the Trasladação de S. Nicolau.[15]
  • 1569 – Cardoso glosses força with Latin vis and violentia.[11]
  • 1755 – Folqman distinguishes bodily strength and violence.[12]
  • 1813 – first record of reforçar.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. strength: physical vigour, muscular power: Não tenho força para levantar isto.[3][16][1]
  2. Moral or mental energy; courage.[16][17][1]
  3. (physics) A force, any cause able to change the state of rest or motion of a body.[3][13][1]
  4. violence, coercion: Entraram à força.[3][13][1]
  5. Power, authority; influence over others.[17][1]
  6. Intensity, vehemence: a força do vento.[13][1]
  7. A body of troops or armed men;[17][14][1] (north-eastern Brazil) the police.[17][14][1]
  8. Necessity, obligation: é força “it is necessary”.[16]
  9. (colloquial) Electricity.[1]

Interjection

  1. Used to wish someone strength or to urge them on.[1]

Word family

Usage notes

Set phrases include à força “by force”, por força “necessarily”, força maior “force majeure” and força de expressão “a manner of speaking”.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. força
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. força
  4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. força
  5. ^ 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. força
  6. ^ a b c d e 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. força
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3455
  8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. fortia
  9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 625
  11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. força
  12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. força
  13. ^ a b c d 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. força
  14. ^ a b c Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. força
  15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. força
  16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. força
  17. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4398

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Força.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/for%C3%A7a. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·