juramento

Forms

juramento m (plural juramentos)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote iuramento, juramento and juramẽto.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin iūrāmentum (“oath”), written Old Galician-Portuguese iuramento in the oldest texts.^{[5][3][6][1][2]} Wiktionary notes that it can also be analysed as jurar with the suffix -mento.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician xuramento, Spanish juramento, Catalan jurament, French jurement, Italian giuramento and Romanian jurământ.^[7][1] The Spanish word is recorded from 1045.^[8]

The Latin noun is formed from Latin iūrō (“to swear”) with the suffix -mentum, and the verb from iūs (“law; ritual formula”).^[1][9][10] Wiktionary traces it further to Proto-Indo-European *h₂yew-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin laws of 1188–1230 already have qui iuramento fecerit “who has sworn an oath”.^[2] In the vernacular a document of 1228 has ouueron per sy iuramento “they took an oath”, and the inquiries of 1258–1261 order a matter to be examined por juramento, under oath.^[2] The sense is the same as today: a solemn statement or promise made with God as witness.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Medieval notarial books describe the oath as taken with a hand on the Gospels and the sign of the cross: in Noia in 1332 a party swears per este notario aos Santos Auãgeos “by this notary on the Holy Gospels”.^[4] The Crónica Troiana uses it for the sworn pledges of a treaty.^[4]

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as calling God to witness that one speaks the truth, explicitly or by swearing by his creatures.^[11] Morais (1789) distinguishes the assertory and promissory oath, the threatening oath, and the judicial, extrajudicial and suppletory oaths of the courts.^[12] Modern Portuguese adds the military juramento de bandeira and the Hippocratic oath of new doctors.^[13][14][6]

Timeline

• 1188–1230 – iuramento in Latin laws.^[2]
• 1228 – ouueron per sy iuramento in a vernacular document.^[2]
• 1261 – por juramento in the royal inquiries.^[2]
• 1317 – Machado's first record.^[2]
• 1332 – oaths on the Gospels in the notarial book of Noia.^[4]
• 1446 – first record in the CTA corpus, in the Dez Mandamentos da Ley de Moisés.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais lists the kinds of oath in law.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of swearing (jurar); a jura.^[3][6][14]
2. A solemn statement or promise that calls on something sacred, or a recognised moral value, as a pledge of good faith; an oath.^{[3][6][13][1]}
3. A solemn commitment made in public, and the formula in which it is spoken.^[3][13][14]
4. (military) The commitment of soldiers to defend their country, and the ceremony in which they make it: juramento de bandeira.^[13][14]
5. (law) A sworn statement before a judge, such as the litigant's oath that he does not sue in bad faith.^[13][14][16]

Related words

• jurar
• jura
• perjúrio
• Latin iūrāmentum
• Spanish juramento

Usage notes

The juramento hipocrático is the code of medical ethics sworn by new doctors, and a juramento de sangue is a blood pact.^[3][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. iuramento
3. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. juramento
4. ^ a b c d e 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. juramento
5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. juramento
6. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. juramento
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4629
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jurar
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. iūrō
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. jurer
11. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. juramento
12. ^ 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, 747
13. ^ a b c d e 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. juramento
14. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5508
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. juramento
16. ^ 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. juramento