paciente

Forms

paciente m or f (plural pacientes)^[1] Houaiss records paciente, pacijtes and paciete for the adjective in the 14th century, and paçientes for the noun in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin patiens (“enduring, patient”), the present participle of patior (“to undergo, suffer, endure”).^[2][3][1][4] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing and Nascentes a semi-learned one.^[1][5] Medieval Latin already used the participle as a noun for a sick person, and the REW lists Italian pazzo (“mad”) as a descendant of the sense “sick”.^[6][7]

De Vaan finds the origin of the Latin verb unclear: it may belong with πῆμα (pêma, “suffering”), or come from a root meaning “to fly, fall”, as “to befall”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the adjective to the 14th century and the noun to the 15th, from Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese.^[2][3] Cunha's date is the 14th century too.^[2][3] The CTA has it in the Espelho de Cristina, in a witness of 1518.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Pereira in 1697 translates the word with Latin patiens and tolerans.^[10] Bluteau defines it as one who suffers with patience, and also gives the term of physics for what undergoes the operation of an agent, as the hand warmed by a fire.^[11] Morais adds the object on which an action falls and the person subject to a passion or a vice.^[12] Houaiss records the grammatical sujeito paciente and the scholastic opposition of paciente to agente.^[2]

The original Aulete has the condemned man about to suffer the death penalty, then the person on whom surgeons are operating and, by extension, a sick person.^[13] In law it is the victim of a crime.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1300s – first records of the adjective.^[2][3]
• 1400s – first record of the noun.^[2]
• 1518 – paciente in the Espelho de Cristina.^[9]
• 1601 – pasiente in a private letter.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the term of physics opposed to the agent.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais records the object of an action.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having paciência; calm, resigned.^[2][15]
2. Able to wait calmly: um ouvinte paciente.^[2][16][1]
3. Persevering in a slow task.^[2][13]
4. Done with patience: uma pesquisa paciente.^[2][16]

Noun

1. A person under medical care, a patient.^[2][4][1]
2. A sick person.^[2][16]
3. A condemned person about to suffer the death penalty.^[2][15]
4. (law) The victim of a crime.^[2][4]
5. (grammar) The entity that undergoes the action of the verb, as opposed to the agente.^[2][17][1]
6. (philosophy) In scholasticism, a being that undergoes an action.^[2][4]

Word family

• pacientemente

Related words

• paciência
• impaciente
• padecer
• Latin patiens

Usage notes

Paciente is also a man's name, from the Latin name Patiens.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. paciente
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. paciente
4. ^ 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. paciente
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. paciente
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. patiens
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. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. paciente
10. ^ 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. paciente
11. ^ 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. paciente
12. ^ 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, 144
13. ^ 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. paciente
14. ^ 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. paciente
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. paciente
16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. paciente
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6803
18. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. paciente