impessoal

Forms

impessoal m or f (plural impessoais)^[1] Houaiss records impesoál in 1540 and impersoal, closer to the Latin, in 1576.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin impersōnālis (“impersonal”), a semi-learned borrowing, as Wiktionary and Nascentes describe it.^[1][3][2] The Latin adjective was a term of the grammarians, for verbs without personal forms, and was formed from in- (“not”) and persōnālis (“personal”), from persōna.^[4][1][5] The Portuguese word has ⟨ss⟩ as in pessoal, while the variant ⟨impersoal⟩ of 1576 keeps the Latin ⟨rs⟩.^[2] Wikcionário simply analyses it as a Portuguese word with a negative prefix.^[6]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Spanish impersonal and French impersonnel, the French word recorded as a grammatical term from about 1174.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is from 1536, folio 30 of a text he cites as FOlG.^[2] Cunha dates the word much later, to 1844.^[9] The early dictionaries know it only as a term of grammar: Morais (1789) defines the impersonal verb as one that lacks some personal forms, like feder and chover, since nobody says eu chovo “I rain”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Vieira (1871–1874) adds the philosophical sense “not belonging to a person in particular”, and calls the infinitive and the participle impersonal moods.^[12] Figueiredo (1899) has “not existing as a person” and notes that some grammarians apply the word to the uninflected infinitive.^[5] The modern dictionaries add “objective, impartial”, “without originality” and “distant, cold”.^[2][13][14]

Timeline

• 1536 – first record.^[2]
• 1540 – the spelling impesoál; 1576 impersoal.^[2]
• 1734 – Feijó lists the spelling Impessoal.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais defines the impersonal verb.^[10]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira records the philosophical sense.^[12]
• 1913 – first record of the derivative impessoalidade, in Figueiredo's second edition.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not existing as a person; without the attributes of a person.^[2][13][5]
2. Not belonging to or concerning any particular person: As regras do concurso são impessoais.^[2][17]
3. Free of personal leanings; objective, impartial.^[2][14]
4. Without individual character; anonymous, unoriginal: uma decoração impessoal.^[2][17][13]
5. Showing distance or coldness; aloof.^[13][14]
6. (grammar) Of a verb, clause or sentence: having no subject, as chover “to rain”: Choveu toda a noite.^[2][18][14]
7. (grammar) Of an infinitive: not inflected for person.^[2][14]

Word family

• impessoalidade
• impessoalizar

Related words

• pessoa
• pessoal
• Latin impersōnālis
• Spanish impersonal
• French impersonnel

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. impessoal
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. impessoal
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. impersonalis
5. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. impessoal
6. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. impessoal
7. ^ 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. impersonal
8. ^ Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard, p. s.v. impersonnel
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pessoa
10. ^ 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, 698
11. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 135
12. ^ 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, 1042
13. ^ 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. impessoal
14. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5114
15. ^ 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. impessoal
16. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. impessoalidade
17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. impessoal
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. impessoal