obediência

Forms

obediência f (plural obediências)^[1] The oldest texts write obedeença, and Houaiss's historical forms also include hoveença (1365), obediecia (14th century), obediemçiia and obydyençia (15th century).^[2][3] Viterbo's Elucidário and Morais (1813) still record obedeença as an old word for obedience.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin oboedientia (“obedience”), also spelt obēdientia in Latin.^[2][3][1] Wiktionary notes that the learned form displaced the older Old Galician-Portuguese obedeença, the shape of the word in the 13th-century texts.^[1][2] Nascentes takes the noun as built on the base of obediente.^[6]

The same Latin noun is Galician obediencia, Spanish obediencia, Catalan obediència, French obédience, Italian obbedienza and Romanian obediență.^[1][7] The French word was borrowed in 1155 and was at first a religious term for obedience to a superior.^[8]

In Latin the noun is formed from oboediēns (“obedient”), the present participle of oboediō (“to listen to; to obey”), with the suffix -ia.^[9][1] The verb is made of ob- and audiō (“to hear”), and its first sense was "to listen, pay attention".^[10][1] Wiktionary explains the vowel ⟨oe⟩ where ⟨ū⟩ would be expected as a deliberate archaism, kept up by the word's use in the law courts.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century, in the form obedeença: cantiga 344 says that on that night all "made obedience" (fezeron obedeença) by virtue of the crowned Queen.^[11][2] Lorenzo's chronology finds the learned spellings obediẽcia and obediencia in the 14th century, in the Crónica Geral and the Crónica de 1344, the latter with a obediencia do poboo "the obedience of the people".^[11]

Semantic evolution

From its first records the word belongs to the language of religion and of lordship: the Franciscan texts of the 14th century have friars who "promised obedience to the lord pope".^[11] In the monasteries obediência also named a dependent house or a monastic office: a Latin document of 1189 already speaks of land left to the Obedientia of a monastery, and Viterbo equates the word with ovença, a monastic office or storeroom.^[4][12] The Medieval Latin word had the same range, from monastic discipline and the vow of obedience to a task or office given to a monk.^[13]

Bluteau defined it in 1712 as the virtue that makes one carry out the orders of a superior, and recorded dar obediencia ao Papa for the embassies sent to Rome to acknowledge a new pope.^[14] Morais (1813) adds levantar a obediência, "to release someone from obedience", and the sense "dominion", as in having peoples under one's obedience.^[5] Modern dictionaries keep the general sense of submitting to someone's will, the religious vow and the written leave a friar needs to move from one convent to another.^[2][15][16]

Timeline

• 1189 – a Latin document leaves an estate to the Obedientia of a monastery.^[4]
• 13th century – obedeença in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[11][2]
• 1365 – the spelling hoveença.^[2]
• 14th century – obediencia in the Crónica de 1344 and the Crónica Geral.^[11][3]
• c. 1430 – obediencia in the Horto do Esposo.^[17]
• 1556 – obediemçia in a private letter.^[18]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives Latin obedientia and obsequium for Obediencia.^[19]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines the virtue and the phrase dar obediencia ao Papa.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais records obedeença as an old word.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of obeying; obedience to an order or a rule: A disciplina exige obediência de todos os soldados.^[2][15]
2. The quality of being obediente; a habit of or readiness for obeying; docility.^[2][15]
3. Complete submission; subjection, vassalagem.^[2][20]
4. Authority, dominion; the sphere of a jurisdiction: terras sob a obediência do rei.^[2][21]
5. (religion) One of the three vows of monks, to obey the orders of the superior.^[15][21]
6. (religion) In a religious order, a written leave given to a member to move from one convent to another or for other purposes.^[2][15]
7. A church, monastery, grange or small priory dependent on a religious order.^[22][20]

Related words

• obedecer
• obediente
• desobediência
• Latin oboedientia
• Spanish obediencia

Usage notes

Obediência passiva is blind submission.^[22] The opposite is desobediência.^[23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. obediência
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. obediência
4. ^ a b c 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, 178
5. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 354
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. obediência
7. ^ 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. obediencia
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. obédience
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. oboedientia
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. oboediō
11. ^ 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. obedeença
12. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ovença
13. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. oboedientia
14. ^ 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. obediencia
15. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. obediência
16. ^ 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. obediência
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. obediencia
18. ^ 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. obediência
19. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. obediencia
20. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6591
21. ^ a b 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. obediência
22. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. obediência
23. ^ 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. obediência