graça

Forms

graça f (plural graças)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin grātia (“favour, goodwill, gratitude”), written Old Galician-Portuguese graça in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Houaiss lists the Latin senses “gratitude, thanks; favour, goodwill; grace, beauty; pardon”.^[2]

The same Latin word gave Galician graza, Spanish gracia, Catalan gràcia, French grâce, Italian grazia and Romanian grație.^[1] Corominas calls the Spanish word a semi-learned descendant, recorded from about 1140.^[5] The French word is described as an early borrowing from Latin.^[6]

The Latin noun is formed from grātus (“pleasing; grateful”) with the suffix -ia.^[1][7] De Vaan traces the adjective to *gʷrāto- and *gʷrH-tó- (“praised (in a song)”), with cognates in Oscan words for “grace, mercy” and in गूर्ति (gūrtí, “praise, welcome”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century, with the sense “favour, mercy, thanks”.^[2][3] In the troubadour songs con graça and con vossa graça mean “by your leave”, and aver a graça de alguem means “to enjoy someone's favour”.^[9] A cantiga d'escarnho of Afonso X begins Se me graça fezesse este Papa de Roma! “If only this Pope of Rome would do me a favour!”.^[9] The Crónica Troiana already uses it for charm, gracefulness: a ssua graça et o sseu amor “her grace and her love”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval songs also have dar graças “to give thanks” and graças a Deus “thank God”.^[10] Folqman (1755) records de graça “free of charge”, grace of features and of speech, and the plural graças for witty sayings.^[11] Morais (1813) puts the theological sense first, the help God gives to do good, followed by the state of innocence (estar em graça), favour (faça-me a graça) and standing with someone.^[12] Bluteau records graça for a person's name, as in como he a vossa graça, and explains it by baptism, the beginning of grace for a Christian, in which the name is given.^[13] A survey in Moncorvo still recorded the polite question qual é a sua graça? “what is your name?”.^[14]

Modern Portuguese adds the legal sense of a pardon granted by the head of state, the form of address Vossa Graça for dukes and archbishops, and humour: ter graça is to be funny.^[2][15] The derivatives are old: gracioso is recorded in the 13th century, engraçar in the 14th, gracejar in the 16th and engraçado in the 17th.^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the troubadour songs.^[2][3][9]
• 13th century – first record of gracioso.^[3]
• c. 1400 – the Compostela fragment of the Flos Sanctorum (copied 1380–1425) uses the word.^[16]
• 16th century – first record of gracejar.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders it with Latin gratia.^[17]
• before 1595 – desgraciado, the older form of desgraçado.^[3]
• 1755 – Folqman records de graça “free of charge”.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais puts the theological sense first.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A favour granted out of generosity; a boon: O rei concedeu-lhe uma graça.^[2][15]
2. Goodwill, esteem towards someone: estar nas boas graças de alguém.^[2][18]
3. (theology) Divine grace, the free help of God that makes salvation possible; the state of being free of sin: estado de graça.^[2][19][1]
4. (theology) A favour obtained from God or a saint in answer to prayer.^[2]
5. (law) A pardon or commutation of a sentence by the head of state.^[2][15][1]
6. A form of address for dukes, duchesses and archbishops: Vossa Graça.^[2]
7. (formal) A person's name: qual é a sua graça?^[2][14]
8. elegance and lightness of form or movement: Ela move-se com muita graça.^[2][1]
9. Funniness; a joke or an amusing act: A piada não teve graça nenhuma.^[2][1]
10. (in the plural) Thanks: dar graças a Deus.^[2][1]

Word family

• agraciar
• desgraça
• desgraçado
• desengraçado
• engraçado
• engraçar
• gracejar
• gracejo
• gracioso
• gracinha
• graçola

Related words

• grato
• gratuito
• gratidão
• Latin grātia
• Spanish gracia

Usage notes

De graça means “free of charge” and graças a “thanks to, because of”.^[2][20][1] Graça is also a female given name.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. graça
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. graça
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. graça
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gracia
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. grâce
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. grātia
8. ^ 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. grātus
9. ^ a b c d 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. graça
10. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. graça
11. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. graça
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 94
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. graça
14. ^ a b 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. graça
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. graça
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. graça
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. graça
18. ^ 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. graça
19. ^ 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. graça
20. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. graça