oficial

Forms

oficial m or f (plural oficiais)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote the plural officiaaes, offiçiaes and oficiaaes;^[2][3][4] Houaiss also records offeziaaes in 1391 and hoffyçiaees in the 15th century.^[2][3][4] Morais (1813) heads the adjective official, the etymological spelling that Wiktionary lists as an old alternative.^[5][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin officiālis (“relating to duty or office”), recorded first as a noun, in the 13th century.^[4][2][1] Cunha treats the noun as the adjective used as a noun, while Houaiss points out that Late Latin already used the word as a noun, “an attendant of a magistrate”.^[2][4][6] Nascentes calls it semi-learned.^[7]

The Latin adjective is formed from officium (“duty, service, office”) with the suffix -ālis.^[8][1] The Latin noun is a contraction of opificium, a derivative of ops (“power, means”).^[1] The same Latin word is Spanish oficial and Italian ufficiale.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates the plural officiaaes to the 13th century.^[2] A cantiga has un cavaleiro oficial seu, “a knight, an officer of hers”, and the Galician-Portuguese Crónica Geral speaks of the king's offizialles.^[10][3] A Portuguese document of 1317 names alcaides de galees e arrayzes e officiaaes, “commanders of galleys, captains and officers” belonging to that office.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval texts the noun means an officer or official of the king, of a lord or of a town council.^[3] The word also came to mean a craftsman: Vieira quotes Gaspar da Cruz's treatise on China on the many oficiaes of every trade there.^[11] Houaiss and Priberam record the worker ranking below the master of a trade, the military officer above the rank of sergeant, and the court official who serves summonses.^[4][12]

The adjective comes later in the dictionaries: Morais's dictionary (1789) defines it as “done by virtue of office”, and Cunha dates it to 1813.^[13][2] The original Caldas Aulete adds “solemn, formal”, “bureaucratic” and the government gazettes such as the Diário Oficial, and Houaiss records a pejorative use for a version of events that the authorities present as the truth.^[14][4] In the Azores the noun names the master of a whaling boat.^[1][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – the plural officiaaes.^[2]
• 1317 – officiaaes in a document on the royal galleys.^[3]
• 1504 – first record in the private letters, spelt ofiçyall.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais has the adjective, “done by virtue of office”.^[13]
• 1813 – Cunha's date for the adjective and for oficialidade “the officers of a unit”.^[2][17]
• 1881 – first record of oficialato “the rank of officer”.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Issued by the government or a recognised authority: um comunicado oficial do ministério.^[4][19][20]
2. Certified by a competent authority.^[4]
3. Relating to the government or to state protocol; organised by the authorities: uma visita oficial.^[4][19][20]
4. formal, solemn.^[20][12][21]
5. (pejorative) Presented as the truth by the authorities.^[4]
6. Accepted by tradition; recognised as the main one among several.^[4][20]

Noun

1. Someone who lives by a trade or holds an office.^[4][19]
2. A skilled journeyman, ranking below the master of a trade.^[4][12]
3. A military or police officer, above the rank of aspirant or midshipman.^{[4][20][12][1]}
4. (law) A court official who serves summonses and carries out orders: oficial de justiça.^[4][12]
5. A dignitary of an honorific order.^[4][12]
6. (Azores) The master of a whaling boat.^[1][15]

Word family

• oficialato
• oficialidade
• oficializar
• oficialização
• desoficializar

Related words

• ofício
• oficina
• oficiar
• oficioso

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. oficial
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. offiçial
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. oficial
5. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 360
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. officialis
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. oficial
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. officiālis
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6044
10. ^ 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. oficial
11. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 537
12. ^ a b c d e f Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. oficial
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, 129
14. ^ 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. oficial
15. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. oficial
16. ^ 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. oficial
17. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. oficialidade
18. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. oficialato
19. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. oficial
20. ^ 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. oficial
21. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6644