passo

Forms

passo m (plural passos)^[1] Houaiss's earliest form is pasos (1008); the spelling passo is the usual one in the medieval texts.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin passus (“step, pace”), written Old Galician-Portuguese passo in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] The Latin noun, a derivative of pandō (“to spread out, open”), meant properly the spreading of the legs in walking, then the space between them and a measure of about one and a half metres.^[2] The PIE root is Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread”).^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician paso, Spanish paso, Catalan pas, French pas, Italian passo and Romanian pas.^[5][1]

Some senses of the noun may belong instead to the verb passar: Nascentes treats the sense “passage” as a deverbal noun, and the Aurélio has a separate article, derived from the verb, for the senses “mountain pass”, the pitch of a gear or screw, and the old measure of length.^[4][6] Houaiss keeps these senses with the Latin noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the form pasos to 1008 after Machado, a date that falls in the period of the Latin charters; the first Portuguese texts with the word are the 13th-century cantigas.^[2] In the 13th-century cantigas the word is both a noun, “step” (quando se viu daqueles passos fóra “when he found himself beyond those steps”), and an adverb, “quietly, slowly” (e eu mui passo fui-mi achegando “and I came up very quietly”).^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

The adverb “softly, slowly” was common in the medieval language: the Galician Crónica Troiana has chamoume moy passo “he called me very softly”, and Viterbo explains it as “in a low voice, gently”.^[3][8] Houaiss still lists it as an adverb.^[2]

The noun widened from the step itself to the distance covered, a way of walking, the gait of a horse, a narrow passage or pass (14th century), a stage in a process and a passage in a book (1567).^[2] As a measure, Morais in 1789 gives the passo as two and a half feet and the geometric passo as five.^[9] Dalgado records passo for the passes of Goa in the Portuguese writing about India.^[10][2] In southern Brazil it is a ford, the usual crossing place of a river, as Spanish paso is in the Plate region.^[11][12][2] In mechanics it is the pitch of a screw or gear.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1008 – pasos, in the earliest record Houaiss gives.^[2]
• 13th century – the noun “step” and the adverb “quietly” in the cantigas.^[7][2]
• 14th century – first dates for the senses “distance of a step”, “narrow pass”, “stage” and the Roman measure.^[2]
• 1350 – first occurrence in the CTA corpus, in the Trasladação de S. Nicolau.^[13]
• 1567 – first date for the sense “passage of a book”.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses Passo with Latin gressus and passus.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau lists passo a passo and andar a passo largo.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A step, the movement of one foot in front of the other when walking.^[2][6][1]
2. The distance covered by a step; a short distance: A escola fica a dois passos daqui.^[2][1]
3. A way of walking; pace, gait, also of an animal, and in particular the slowest gait of a horse.^[2][6][1]
4. The sound of a footstep; a footprint.^[2][1]
5. (dance) A movement of the feet and body that forms a pattern in a dance.^[2][1]
6. A stage in a process; a measure taken to reach an end: um passo decisivo.^[2][1]
7. A situation or episode; a passage of a book or speech.^[2]
8. A narrow passage, a mountain pass or a strait;^[2][11][1] (Brazil) a ford.^[2][11][1]
9. (historical) An old measure of length: the Roman pace of five feet, and a later pace of two and a half feet.^[2][1]
10. (engineering) The pitch of a screw thread or between the teeth of a gear.^[2][1]

Adverb

1. (archaic) Slowly, quietly.^[2][8]

Related words

• passar
• passada
• Latin passus
• Spanish paso

Usage notes

A separate adjective passo “dried” (of fruit, as in uva passa and figo passo) comes from the Latin participle passus “spread out” of pandō;^[2][16] Houaiss's first record (1502–c. 1536) has the old sense “wide, vast”, and he dates “dried” to 1821–1875.^[2][16]

Another noun passo, in the plural Passos, names each of the stations of the Way of the Cross and the chapels or images that represent them; it is the Latin participle passus “having suffered”, from patior, and Houaiss dates it from Bluteau's dictionary (1720).^[2] The Priberam also lists an old adjective passo “suffering” of the same origin.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. passo
3. ^ a b c 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. passo
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. passo
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6271
6. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. passo
7. ^ a b 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. passo
8. ^ a b 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
9. ^ 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, 167
10. ^ Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 2, 185
11. ^ a b c Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. passo
12. ^ Beaurepaire-Rohan, Henrique de (1889), Diccionario de vocabulos brazileiros, Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, p. s.v. passo
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. passo
14. ^ 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. passo
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. passo
16. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. passo