frente

Forms

frente f (plural frentes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish frente, from older Old Spanish fruente, recorded in 1124, from Latin frōns (“forehead, brow; front”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Silva Bastos and Figueiredo derived it from the Old Spanish form.^[6][7] In Spanish the diphthong ⟨ue⟩ was regularly reduced to ⟨e⟩ after a liquid, and the reduced form is found from Nebrija's dictionary of 1495 on.^[8][9] Nascentes lists the scholars who took it for a Spanish loan, among them Leite de Vasconcelos, Gonçalves Viana and Nunes.^[10] The inherited Portuguese form of the Latin word is fronte, recorded from the 13th century.^[11][12][1]

The same Latin word is Galician fronte, Catalan front, French front, Italian fronte and Romanian frunte.^[13][14][1] De Vaan finds no plausible etymology for it: the Celtic and Germanic words compared by earlier scholars are too vague in meaning, and his own idea of a form meaning “the side where the mouth is” is very speculative.^[15][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Feijó's spelling book of 1734 defines the word as a military term, the length of an army's first rank, and Folqman's dictionary of 1755 also gives the front of an army.^[16][17] Houaiss lists the front line of an army first among its senses.^[2] The glossary of the Crónica Troiana already has frente “forehead”, of creatures with a single eye ẽno medio da frente “in the middle of the forehead”.^[18]

Semantic evolution

Morais in 1789 gives the front of a building and of an army.^[19] Figueiredo in 1899 has the façade, the front part of anything, the vanguard, the face and presence.^[7] Modern dictionaries add a coalition of parties, as in frente popular, and the meteorological front between two air masses, with frente fria and frente quente.^[2][20][1] In Bahia it is the place where the diamond-bearing gravel begins, and the masculine o frente is the miner who leads a gang.^[2][21]

Many phrases are built on it: à frente “ahead, in charge”, em frente “opposite, straight on”, frente a frente “face to face” and fazer frente “to stand up to”.^[22][23]

Timeline

• 1593 – fremte in a private letter.^[24]
• 1651 – first record, as Houaiss dates it.^[2]
• 1734 – Feijó defines it as a military term.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais gives the front of a building and of an army.^[19]
• 1899 – first record of the derivative enfrentar.^[25]

Meanings

Noun

1. The front of anything that has a back: A frente do carro ficou amolgada.^[2][4][1]
2. The façade of a building: Pintaram a frente do prédio.^[2][4][1]
3. The face; the forehead.^[4][5]
4. The place in front; presence, sight: Discutiram na frente das crianças.^[2][4]
5. (military) The vanguard or front rank of an army; the area where the fighting takes place.^[2][5][1]
6. (figurative) A front of resistance or struggle: uma frente contra a fome.^[2][4]
7. (politics) A coalition of parties and groups acting together.^[2][20]
8. (meteorology) The boundary between two air masses of different temperature.^[2][22][1]
9. (bookbinding) The side of a book where the text begins.^[2][5]

Word family

• enfrentar
• frentear
• frentista

Related words

• frontal
• fronteira
• fronte
• Latin frōns
• Spanish frente

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. frente
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. frente
4. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. frente
5. ^ a b c d 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. frente
6. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. frente
7. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 634
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 953
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. frente
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 226
11. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fronte
12. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fronte
13. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. fronte
14. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. front
15. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. frōns
16. ^ 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. frente
17. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. frente
18. ^ 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. frente
19. ^ a b 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, 636
20. ^ 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. frente
21. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. frente
22. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. frente
23. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. frente
24. ^ 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. frente
25. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. enfrentar