governador

Forms

governador m (plural governadores, feminine governadora, feminine plural governadoras)^[1] The medieval texts write gouernador and governador.^[2][3] The feminine governadora is in Barbosa's dictionary of 1611.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gubernātor (“helmsman, pilot”), written Old Galician-Portuguese governador in the oldest texts.^[5][6][7][1] The Latin noun was formed from gubernō (“to steer a ship”) with the agent suffix -tor,^[8][1] and the verb itself was taken from Ancient Greek κυβερνάω (kubernáō, “to steer”).^[9][1]

The glossary of the Crónica Geral allows both explanations, from the Portuguese verb governar or from the Latin noun,^[2] and Silva Bastos, Figueiredo and Michaelis derive it from the verb with the suffix -dor.^[10][11][12]

The same Latin word is Galician gobernador, Spanish gobernador, Catalan governador, Italian governatore and French gouverneur.^[1][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are of the 14th century.^[5][6] The Miragres de Santiago call God gouernador et gardador de nosos corpos et de nosas almas “ruler and keeper of our bodies and of our souls”, and a document of 1417 names a man capitam moor e gouernador of a city for the king.^[2] The word thus meant both one who rules in general and the holder of an office.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word was used for the head of a religious order and of the Church as well as for the king's officers.^[2] With the overseas expansion it became the title of the men sent to rule a stronghold, a captaincy or a province: Folqman (1755) and Morais (1789) define it so, and Morais adds governador das armas, the general of an army.^[14][15] Morais (1813) also records an obsolete sense, the patron of a church.^[16]

Caldas Aulete gives the governador civil of a Portuguese district and the governor of a bank;^[17] Houaiss records the governors of the colonies and, in Brazil, the elected head of a federal state.^[5] The word passed into the Portuguese-based creoles and the languages of the former colonies: guvernador in Kabuverdianu, gubernadur in Guinea-Bissau Creole, govenadô in Sãotomense and governadór in Tetum.^[1]

Timeline

• 1300s – first records, in the Miragres de Santiago.^[5][6][2]
• 1417 – capitam moor e gouernador of a city, and in 1433 regedor e gouernador of a religious order.^[2]
• c. 1465 – gouernador in the Vida de São João Clímaco (witness 1430–1500).^[3]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists Governador and Governadora.^[4]
• 1755 – Folqman defines the governor of a province.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais records governador das armas.^[15]
• 1881 – Caldas Aulete has the governador civil of a district.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who governs or directs.^[5][18]
2. A governor: the official who governs a state, a province or a region; in the colonial period, the ruler of a colony or part of one.^[5][12]
3. (Brazil) The elected head of the government of a federal state, usually for four years.^[5][17]
4. (Portugal) governador civil: the magistrate who represented the central government in a district.^[19][20]
5. The title of the head of certain institutions, such as a central bank.^[19][20]
6. (history) The title of the regents of Portugal under the first dynasties.^[19]

Adjective

1. That governs; able to govern.^[5][18]

Word family

• governadora
• governador-geral

Related words

• governar
• governo
• governante
• Latin gubernātor
• Spanish gobernador

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 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. gouernador
3. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. gouernador
4. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. governador
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. governador
6. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. governador
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. governador
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. gubernātor
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. gubernō
10. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. governador
11. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. governador
12. ^ a b 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. governador
13. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. gobernador
14. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. governador
15. ^ 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, 64
16. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 93
17. ^ a b c 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. governador
18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. governador
19. ^ 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. governador
20. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4748