igualdade

Forms

igualdade f (plural igualdades)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote ygualdade and egualdade;^[2][3][4] igualdade appears in the 14th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin aequālitās (“equality, evenness”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ygualdade in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][5] Wikcionário analyses it instead as igual with the suffix -dade, and Cunha lists it among the derivatives of the adjective.^[6][3] The Latin noun is formed from aequālis (“equal, even, level”) with the suffix -tās.^[1][7]

The Latin word is continued in Galician igualdade, Spanish igualdad, Catalan igualtat and the Old French ivelte.^[8][1] French replaced the old form in the 15th century with French égalité, made on égal.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it of Christ: macar é Sennor, quis ygualdade / con sa Madre “though he is Lord, he wanted equality with his Mother” (cantiga 414).^[4] The Galician-Portuguese translation of the Fuero Real speaks of kinsmen de ygualdade “of equal degree”, and the Galician chronicle has viuer cõ elles en egualdade “to live with them as equals”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the first records the word means sameness of rank, degree or quantity.^[4] Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) translate it with Latin aequalitas and aequitas, joining equality with fairness.^[10][11] Bluteau (1712) defines it as exact likeness in quantity or quality and describes how Equality was painted as a woman holding a balance in one hand and a swallow's nest in the other, since the swallow was thought to share food equally among its young.^[12] Vieira's dictionary (1871–1874) gives the senses conformity, uniformity, proportion, equity and justice.^[13]

The political sense, the principle that all members of a society are subject to the same law and have the same rights and duties, is the one modern dictionaries define at length.^[2][14] Mathematics uses it for the relation between equal quantities and the formula that states it, and it can also mean the evenness of a surface.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 13th century – ygualdade in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][2]
• 14th century – the spellings igualdade and egualdade.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – ygualdade in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary translates it as aequalitas.^[10]
• 1663 – first record of the spelling igualdade in the private letters of Post Scriptum.^[16]
• 1712 – Bluteau describes the allegory of Equality.^[12]
• 1813 – Cunha's first record of desigualdade.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. equality of quantity: the absence of any difference in amount: igualdade de salários.^[2][1]
2. (mathematics) The relation between two equal quantities; the equation that expresses it.^[2][5]
3. Sameness of quality, value, proportion or nature; uniformity, parity (paridade).^[2][5]
4. The principle that all people are subject to the same law and have the same rights and duties: lutar pela igualdade entre homens e mulheres.^[2][14]
5. Equity, fairness (equidade).^[5][13]
6. Evenness of a surface: a igualdade do terreno.^[2][17]

Word family

• desigualdade

Related words

• igual
• igualar
• equidade
• Latin aequālitās
• Galician igualdade
• Spanish igualdad

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. igualdade
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. igual
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. ygualdade
5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. igualdade
6. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. igualdade
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. igual
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 238a
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. égalité
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. igualdade
11. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. igualdade
12. ^ 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. igualdade
13. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 1014
14. ^ a b 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. igualdade
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ygualdade
16. ^ 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. igualdade
17. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. igualdade