ministro

Forms

ministro m (plural ministros, feminine ministra, feminine plural ministras)^[1] Old spellings include mynistro (14th century) and menistro (15th century).^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin minister (“servant, attendant”), taken as a learned word through the Latin accusative.^[2][4][1] Nascentes notes that the word has risen in meaning from “servant”.^[5]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Spanish ministro, recorded from 1220–1250, as French ministre, from about 1120, and as Italian ministro.^[6][7][1]

The Latin word is formed from minus (“less”) with the comparative suffix -ter, as the counterpart of magister (“master”): the servant set against the master.^[8][9][7] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Italic *minosteros.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Portuguese records are titles in religious orders: a document of 1390 names frey afonso mynistro da terceyra orden “Friar Afonso, minister of the Third Order”, and one of 1394 frey Joham danço ministro.^[3] Houaiss dates the word to the 14th century and gives as its oldest sense “one who carries out another's will; intermediary, executor”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Medieval Latin had already given minister the senses “royal court dignitary” and “state official”.^[10] In Portuguese the word long kept the general sense “agent, executor”: Camões calls the men tying a prisoner's hands duros ministros rigorosos.^[11] Feijó (1734) defines it as one who serves, who administers justice or who governs.^[12] Morais (1789) gives an officer of justice, of the state or of the Church under the sovereign or the prelates, the ministros de Estado, the clergy who read the Epistle and the Gospel at a solemn Mass, the ministro geral of the Franciscans, and among Protestants the pastor.^[13]

Houaiss marks the general senses as old: today the word mainly names a member of the government who heads a ministry, and a diplomatic rank below ambassador.^[2] In Brazil the judges of the supreme courts are also called ministros.^[2][11] Tetum borrowed the word as ministru.^[1]

Timeline

• 1390 – mynistro of the Third Order in a document.^[3]
• 1394 – the spelling ministro.^[3]
• 1433 – ministro in the Vita Christi.^[14]
• 15th century – the variant menistro.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it with Latin ministrator and minister.^[15]
• 1734 – Feijó defines it as one who serves, administers justice or governs.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais records ministros de Estado and the Protestant sense “pastor”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A minister: a member of the government who heads a ministério: A ministra das Finanças falou ao país.^[2][11][1]
2. (diplomacy) A diplomatic rank below embaixador; the head of a legation.^[2][16][1]
3. (religion) One who exercises a ministry in a church, preaching or giving the sacraments; a Protestant pastor.^[2][11][1]
4. (Brazil, law) A judge of a supreme or federal court.^[2][11]
5. (dated) One who carries out another's will; an agent, intermediary or executor.^[2][17][1]
6. (dated) A title of high public officials in general.^[2][17]

Word family

• primeiro-ministro

Related words

• ministerial
• ministério
• ministração
• ministrador
• ministral
• ministrar
• ministrável
• Spanish ministro

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ministro
3. ^ 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. mynistro
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ministro
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 334
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. menester
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ministre
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. minister
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. minister
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. minister
11. ^ a b c d e 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. ministro
12. ^ a b 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. ministro
13. ^ 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. 2, 84
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ministro
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. ministro
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. ministro
17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ministro