mente

Forms

mente f (plural mentes)^[1] Houaiss lists the medieval spellings metes (14th century) and mentre (15th century).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mēns (“mind, intellect”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mente in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Portuguese continues the oblique cases of the Latin noun, not its nominative.^[1][4] The same Latin word is Spanish miente, Catalan ment, Occitan ment, Italian mente and Romanian minte.^[5] In Spanish the inherited form was in use until the Golden Age, and the modern mente is a learned word of 1444.^[6]

The Latin noun goes back to *méntis (“thought”) and is cognate with मति (matí), mintis (“thought”) and the English word mind.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs *mn̥ti- and relates the Latin verb mentior (“to lie”).^[7]

The Latin ablative, “with a … mind”, became the suffix that forms adverbs, -mente; the medieval poets still wrote it apart, as in ⟨coitada mente⟩ “sorrowfully”.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[2][3] Cunha notes that the medieval language used it mostly in verbal phrases meaning “to notice, observe”: meter mentes, parar mentes, ter mentes.^[3] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have o judeu meteu mentes “the Jew paid attention”, vĩir a mente and aver en mente “to remember”, and de bõa mente “willingly”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the cantigas the word means mind and thought, memory (venna-ch'a mente “may it come to your mind”) and will (de bõa mente “gladly”).^[8][9] The Cancioneiro da Ajuda shows mentes meter giving way to mentes parar in the later lyric.^[8] Viterbo in 1798 explains the old word as “remembrance, memory”.^[10] Bluteau's article gives the learned senses of his day: the understanding, the divine and the human mind, and the intention of an author, a mente do Author.^[11]

Today the word names the mind as the seat of thought and feeling, memory, imagination and intention, and survives in the set phrases de boa mente, de má mente and ter em mente.^[2][12][13]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the cantigas: meter mentes, de bõa mente.^[2][3][8]
• 14th century – the spelling metes.^[2]
• c. 1430 – mente in the Horto do Esposo.^[14]
• 15th century – the spelling mentre.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses Mente with Latin mens.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau quotes Camões's presaga mente.^[11]
• 1798 – Viterbo glosses the old word as “remembrance, memory”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The mind: the seat of thought, reason and feeling; the intellect.^[2][12][1]
2. memory, remembrance: não me sai da mente.^[2][16]
3. imagination, the power to conceive things.^[2][4]
4. intention, purpose: era sua mente partir cedo.^[4][12]

Word family

• mentar

Related words

• mental
• demente
• demência
• mentecapto
• -mente
• Latin mēns
• Spanish mente

Usage notes

De boa mente is “willingly, gladly” and de má mente “unwillingly”;^[13][17] ter em mente is “to bear in mind” or “to intend”.^[13][17] Mente is also the third person singular of mentir “to lie”, a different word.^[17]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mente
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. mente
4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mente
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5496
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mente
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. mente
9. ^ 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. mente
10. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 129
11. ^ 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. mente
12. ^ a b c 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. mente
13. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6090
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mente
15. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mente
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mente
17. ^ a b c Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. mente