intenção

Forms

intenção f (plural intenções)^[1] The medieval form was entençom or entençon, plural entenções.^[2][3][4] A private letter still writes entenção in 1561, while Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 has intenção.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin intentiō (“a stretching; effort; purpose”), written Old Galician-Portuguese entençom in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word, and Wiktionary says that the spelling was later brought closer to the Latin, or the word borrowed from Latin again.^[7][1]

The Latin noun is formed from intendō (“to stretch out; to direct”) with the suffix -tiō; its first sense was the action of stretching, tension, and it came to mean a plan or purpose.^[8][2] The verb is in- with tendō (“to stretch”).^[2][9] Medieval Latin used the word for an aim or purpose, for devotion and for a legal claim or grievance.^[10]

From the sense “dispute, claim” came Spanish entenzón (“quarrel”).^[11] Compare also Galician intención.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria already use entençon for intention: the Virgin's entençon is asked to turn towards the sinner, and Christians, Jews and Moors may be forgiven if they set their entenções firmly on God.^[4] The same form named the tenção, a debate in verse between two troubadours, in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and the cantigas of mockery.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana uses entençon both for intention and for strife, “they had not thought of having strife or dispute with Achilles”.^[4] The sense “dispute” did not survive in the standard language.^[2] Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 renders intenção with Latin animus, mens and voluntas, and notes that the Latin intentio in this sense is not Ciceronian.^[6] Vieira (1871–1874) defines it as the act of the will by which one sets the end of one's actions, and notes that in law and morals it is the intention that makes the guilt.^[13]

Modern dictionaries add the technical senses of scholastic and phenomenological philosophy and the motives of a writer in literary criticism.^[2][14] Surgery speaks of healing por primeira intenção (without granulation).^[15]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, spelt entençom.^[2][3]
• 1561 – entenção in a private letter.^[5]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists intenção.^[6]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira gives its legal and moral use.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. An intention: what someone means to do; a purpose or plan.^[2][14][1]
2. What one aims at, consciously or not; a wish or desire.^[2][16]
3. (ethics) The end that determines an act, considered apart from its outcome.^[2]
4. A hidden purpose, contrary to what one shows.^[17][15]
5. (philosophy) In scholasticism, the mind's application to an object of knowledge; in phenomenology, the act of consciousness that gives meaning to what is perceived.^[2][16]
6. (literature) The set of motives that lead a writer to produce a work.^[2][14]

Word family

• intencional
• intencionalidade
• intencionado
• intencionar

Related words

• intento
• intentar
• tenção
• Latin intentiō

Usage notes

Segundas intenções are hidden motives behind what someone does;^[2] intenção séria is courtship aiming at marriage.^[2] The proverb de boas intenções o inferno está cheio says that good intentions alone are worth little.^[2] Por intenção de means “for the sake of” someone, as in a Mass said for them.^[18] Michaelis warns against confusing it with intensão “intensity”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. intenção
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. intenção
4. ^ 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. entençon
5. ^ a b 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. intenção
6. ^ a b c Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. intenção
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. intenção
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. intentiō
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. intentio
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. intentio
11. ^ 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. entenzón
12. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. entençom
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, 1136
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. intenção
15. ^ a b c 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. intenção
16. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5327
17. ^ 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. intenção
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. intenção