pausa

Forms

pausa f (plural pausas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pausa (“pause, halt, cessation”).^[2][3][1] Nascentes calls it a learned word that reached Portuguese through Latin from Greek.^[4] The Latin noun is usually traced to Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis, “a stopping, ceasing”), from παύω (paúō, “to cause to cease, to stop”).^[1][5] The DHLF points out that the Greek word is rare and late and that the change of declension is hard to explain, and asks whether the Latin noun was instead made from the verb pausō, itself built on the aorist of the Greek verb.^[6]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Spanish pausa, Italian pausa, Catalan pausa and French pause.^[1][7][6] The popular descendants of the Latin noun and its verb are pousa and pousar.^[8][9] Houaiss calls the verb pausar the learned divergent form of the popular verb.^[8][9] Galician pousa “rest; lodging; country house” goes back to the same Latin noun.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha's addenda give a 15th-century record of pausa, and Houaiss dates the spelling pausa to the 15th century.^[3][2] Houaiss's earlier date, a royal letter of 1290 with poussa, comes from Viterbo's Elucidário, but there the word means the lodging and board owed to a royal official, the sense of pousa.^[2][11] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 glosses pausa with Latin cunctatio “delay, hesitation”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) has the phrase fazer pausa “to pause”, and Bluteau (1712–1728) defines the word as the interval in which walking, speaking or working is broken off, adding the musical rest, the sign that tells some musicians to stay silent while others sing.^[13][14] Morais (1789) also records the musical sense.^[15] Vieira (1871–1874) adds “slowness, delay”, the sense of com pausa “unhurriedly”.^[16] Houaiss dates the building term, the space between the beams of a timber frame, to 1899, and modern linguistics uses the word for a silence in speech, with terms such as pausa preenchida, a pause filled by a hesitation sound.^[2][17] In Brazil it also names the perforated rose of a watering can.^[18]

The Greek-Latin word is also a combining form in learned compounds such as menopausa and tropopausa.^[19]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records of pausa.^[3][2]
• 1569 – Cardoso enters pausa as “delay”.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists fazer pausa.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the musical rest.^[14]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira records the sense “slowness”.^[16]
• 1899 – Houaiss's date for the sense “space between the beams”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A temporary interruption of an action, movement or sound; a break: Paramos para uma pausa antes de continuar a subida.^[2][17][1]
2. slowness, leisureliness, especially in com pausa “slowly, unhurriedly”.^[2][17]
3. (linguistics) A short or long silence between words, phrases or sentences in speech.^[2][18]
4. (music) A rest: a silence of fixed length, and the sign that marks it in notation.^[2][17][18]
5. (construction) The space between the beams of a timber frame.^[2][17]
6. (Brazil) The perforated rose on the spout of a watering can.^[2][18]

Related words

• pausado
• pausar
• pousa
• pousar
• repousar
• Latin pausa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. pausa
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pausa
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pausa
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. pausa
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pause
7. ^ 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. pausa
8. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pausar
9. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pousa
10. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. pousa
11. ^ 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, 233
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pausa
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pausa
14. ^ 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. pausa
15. ^ 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, 172
16. ^ 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, 706
17. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pausa
18. ^ a b c d 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. pausa
19. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. -pausa