notário

Forms

notário m (plural notários, feminine notária, feminine plural notárias)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote notario, noteyro, notaro and notairo.^[2] Houaiss records notario from the 13th century, notairo from the 14th and notayro from the 15th.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin notārius (“scribe, clerk, secretary”), written Old Galician-Portuguese notario in the oldest texts.^[3][1][4][2] Nascentes calls it a learned word.^[4] The medieval forms Old Galician-Portuguese notairo, Old Galician-Portuguese noteyro and Old Galician-Portuguese notaro stood beside it from the 13th century.^[2][3]

The Latin noun is formed from nota (“mark, sign, note”) with the suffix -ārius, and first meant a shorthand writer.^[1][5][6] Houaiss relates it to notō (“to mark”).^[3] The same Latin word gave Italian notaio, Catalan notari and Old French notarie.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology has the word in Galician-Portuguese charters from the mid-13th century: notario iurado “sworn notary” in a charter of 1242–1252 and eu S. P. notario “I, S. P., notary” in 1254, the formula with which the notary signed the documents he wrote.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria also mention o notario.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin the notarius was a clerk skilled in shorthand, then a clerk of the imperial offices and of the papal and royal chanceries.^[7][5] In the medieval Galician-Portuguese charters he is the public scribe who drew up and attested legal documents.^[2][3] Morais in 1813 defines him as a public scribe, adding that the word had come to mean the scribe of church courts, and that a notário apostólico drew up acts in spiritual matters by the authority of the Pope.^[8] In modern Portugal the notary is a law graduate who drafts, files and authenticates legal documents, and the word also names his office; in Brazil the usual synonym is tabelião.^[9][10][11]

Timeline

• 1242–1252 – notario iurado in a charter.^[2]
• 1254 – eu S. P. notario.^[2]
• 1261 – the variant noteyro; 1271 notaro; 1274 notairo.^[2]
• 1332 – per este notario in the notarial book of Noia.^[2]
• 1734 – Feijó prescribes Notário instead of Notairo.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais defines it and records notário apostólico.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A notary: a legal professional or public official who drafts, records and authenticates documents and deeds; a tabelião.^{[3][9][10][11]}
2. The office where a notary works.^[9][10]
3. (historical) notário apostólico: a notary for church affairs, who drew up acts in spiritual matters.^[10][13]

Related words

• notar
• nota
• notarial
• Latin notarius

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 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. notario
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. notário
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. notário
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. notarius
8. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 348
9. ^ 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. notário
10. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. notário
11. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. notário
12. ^ 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. notário
13. ^ 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. notário