passagem

Forms

passagem f (plural passagens)^[1] Old Portuguese wrote pasagem, passage and passaien, and in the 15th century pasajem.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French passage, written Old Galician-Portuguese pasagem and Old Galician-Portuguese passage in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] The French noun is formed from passer (“to pass”) with the suffix -age.^[1] Houaiss dates it in French to about 1100 in the sense “mountain pass”, to 1165 as “crossing by sea” and to 1176 as “passage of a text”.^[2][1] The Portuguese ending -agem is the usual adaptation of the French suffix.^[1]

Michaelis and DELPo analyse the word instead as passar with this suffix, DELPo adding that it is formed like the French word.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates the form pasagem to the 13th century, Houaiss the word to the 14th, with the plural passageens in 1391.^[3][2] Viterbo found passagem in the leases of the Minho as a payment due once a year when the king crossed the Douro, from the 13th century to the 16th, and as a toll paid by those who passed through a district; in 1313 the Santa Passagem was the planned crusade to the Holy Land.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first Portuguese–Latin dictionaries render the word as Latin traiectio “crossing” and transitus “passing”.^[8][9] Morais (1789) records the act of crossing by land or by sea, the right of passage, the narrow place where one passes, the passage of an author that is quoted, the fare paid to the master of a ship, and in music the movement of the voice from one interval to another; he also has de passagem “in passing, lightly”.^[10] The fare later became the ticket itself, for any vehicle.^[2][11]

In Brazil the word also means a stretch of a river, and in the countryside the plank or log laid across a stream.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – Cunha's first record, spelt pasagem.^[3]
• 1313 – the Santa Passagem, the planned crusade, in a document of the bishop of Porto.^[7]
• 1391 – the plural passageens.^[2]
• 1484 – leases of Vairão require the payment of passagem when the king crosses the Douro.^[7]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary translates it as Latin traiectio.^[8]
• 1789 – Morais records the passage of an author, the fare and the musical sense.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act, effect or right of passing or crossing.^[2][4][1]
2. A place through which one passes; a passageway, corridor or link between two places.^[2][4][1]
3. The fare paid for a journey in any vehicle.^[2][4]
4. A ticket entitling one to travel.^[2][1]
5. A passage of a literary or musical work.^[2][1]
6. An episode or incident in someone's life or in a story.^[2][5]
7. A change, transition.^[2]
8. (sewing) A darn over a hole or tear in cloth.^[2][13]
9. (astronomy) The passing of a celestial body across a meridian or across the disc of another body.^[14][5]
10. (Brazil) A stretch of a river.^[2]

Word family

• passageiro
• de passagem
• passagem de nível

Related words

• passar
• passo
• French passage

Usage notes

Houaiss also has a separate musical passagem, a short form of nota de passagem “passing note”.^[2]

The phrase de passagem means “in passing, briefly”, and estar de passagem “to be just passing through”.^[2][1] A passagem de nível is a level crossing.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. passagem
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. passar
4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. passagem
5. ^ a b c 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. passagem
6. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. passagem
7. ^ 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, 206
8. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. passagem
9. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. passagem
10. ^ 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, 165
11. ^ 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. passagem
12. ^ 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. passagem
13. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. passagem
14. ^ 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. passagem