operação

Forms

operação f (plural operações)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin operātiō (“work, labour; a working”),^[2][3][4][1] recorded from the 15th century.^[2] Wiktionary notes that it can also be analysed as operar with the suffix -ção, and Nascentes calls it semi-learned, if it is not a Portuguese formation.^[1][5] Machado, as Houaiss reports, takes it for a learned doublet of obração, a word whose own origin is disputed.^[2][6]

The Latin noun is formed from operor (“to work”) with the suffix -tiō.^[7][1] The verb comes from opus (“work”), which de Vaan reconstructs as Proto-Italic *opes- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep-os (“work”).^[8] The popular outcome of the Latin verb's family is obrar, whereas the verb that goes with this noun is a learned word.^[9][10] The same Latin noun was borrowed as Spanish operación, Galician operación, Catalan operació and Italian operazione.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first records are from the 15th century, in the sense “act or effect of operating”.^[2] A plague regimen printed about 1496, the Regimento proveitoso contra a pestenença, has the spelling operaçam.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The older senses are those of the working of a power or faculty, as operações da natureza, as operações do entendimento, and, in religious language, the working of God or of grace on the will: a operação do Espírito Santo.^[13][4] Pereira's dictionary of 1697 glosses it with Latin actio and operatio.^[14] By 1912 Silva Bastos lists the technical senses: a commercial transaction, a calculation, a chemical analysis, a surgical intervention and a movement of troops.^[15] The general sense of a planned set of actions, as in a rescue or police operação, is the commonest today.^[2][16]

Timeline

• 1400s – first records, spelt operaçom, operaçãm and operacam.^[2]
• 1496 – operaçam in the Regimento proveitoso contra a pestenença.^[12]
• 1500s – Cunha's century for operação.^[3]
• 1697 – Pereira enters operação.^[14]
• 1772 – operação in a private letter.^[17]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira defines it as the action of a power or faculty that produces an effect.^[13]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos lists the commercial, mathematical, chemical, surgical and military senses.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or effect of operating; the working of a power, faculty or organ that produces an effect: as operações da memória.^[2][4][16]
2. (theology) The action of God or of grace on human will.^[4][18]
3. A planned set of actions that combines the means needed for a result: uma operação de salvamento.^[2][4][16]
4. (military) A manoeuvre, combat or military action.^[2][19]
5. A commercial transaction; a deal on the market.^[2][16]
6. (mathematics) A calculation; a process that turns elements of a set into another element: uma operação de divisão.^[2][4]
7. (surgery) A surgical operation (cirurgia).^[2][16][1]
8. (chemistry) A process that transforms substances.^[4]
9. The working or running of a machine or system: entrar em operação.^[18][1]

Related words

• operar
• obrar
• obra
• Latin operātiō
• Spanish operación

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. operação
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. operar
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. operação
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. operação
6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. obração
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
11. ^ 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. operación
12. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. operaçam
13. ^ a b 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, 556
14. ^ a b 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. operação
15. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. operação
16. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. operação
17. ^ 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. operação
18. ^ a b 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. operação
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6700