pessoa

Forms

pessoa f (plural pessoas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote pessõa, pessoa, persoa and persõa.^[2][3] The spellings pesoa and pesõa appear in the 14th century.^[4][3] Wiktionary lists the older spelling pessôa.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin persona (“mask; role; person”), written Old Galician-Portuguese pessõa and Old Galician-Portuguese persoa in the oldest texts.^[4][2][5][1] Houaiss calls it the popular outcome of the Latin word, whose learned borrowing is its doublet (see Related words).^[4][1] Wikcionário passes it through a Vulgar Latin *pessona, with /ss/ for the Latin /rs/.^[6] The tilde of the old spelling ⟨pessõa⟩ still marks the nasal vowel of the lost Latin /n/.^[4][3]

The same Latin word is Galician persoa, Spanish persona, Catalan persona, French personne and Italian persona.^[7][1][8]

In Latin the word first meant the mask of an actor, then the part he played, and finally a person.^[9][4] Its further origin is unknown; the OLD and Nascentes think it probably Etruscan, and it is often compared with 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask, masked figure”).^[9][10][1] Its sense development partly repeats that of the Greek word for the mask, πρόσωπον (prósōpon, “face, mask, role, person”), which some have proposed as the ultimate source.^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology and the DDGM quote a charter of 1267 with in pessõa de don Johan “in the person of Don John”, and one of 1288 with nem a nemhũa pessõa Religiosa “nor to any religious person”.^[3] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the word is the person of the speaker: pois ta pessõa nobr' aqui vẽo “since your noble person came here”.^[3] From the start the phrase per sua pessoa meant “in person, oneself”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In medieval church use a pessoa was a dignitary of a cathedral chapter, such as the dean or the treasurer, from the Latin persona of the documents;^[12][3] Viterbo gives a record of 1288, and a text of 1341 names as pessoas et coengos “the dignitaries and canons”.^[12][3] The theological sense of the three persons of the Trinity is in the Miragres de Santiago (tres pesoas en hũu Deus).^[3]

Morais's dictionary of 1813 defines the word as a rational creature made of body and soul, and records the three persons of the Trinity.^[13] Modern dictionaries add the sense of an eminent figure, the personality of someone, and the legal person, a being or body with rights and duties (pessoa jurídica, pessoa física).^[4][14][15] The phrase em pessoa means “in person”.^[1]

Timeline

• 1267 – in pessõa de don Johan in a charter.^[3]
• 1288 – pessõa Religiosa in a document;^[3][12] Viterbo has a record of the same year for a cathedral dignitary.^[3][12]
• 13th century, second half – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use pessõa.^[3]
• 1344 – the Crónica Geral writes both pessoa and pessõa.^[3]
• 14th century – Houaiss records the spelling pesoa;^[4] peçoas appears in the 15th century.^[4]
• c. 1430 – the earliest occurrence in the CTA corpus, the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary renders Pessoa by Latin persona.^[17]
• 1635 – first record of the derivative apessoado.^[2]
• 1813 – Morais defines the person as body and soul and gives the theological sense.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person, a human being, man or woman: Estavam três pessoas à espera do autocarro.^[4][14][1]
2. An eminent individual, a personage: era a primeira pessoa da vila.^[4][14]
3. The particular character or personality of someone.^[4][15]
4. (formal) Someone's body or physical presence.^[1][15]
5. (grammar) Each of the three grammatical persons, the speaker, the one spoken to and the one spoken of: primeira pessoa, terceira pessoa.^[4][18][1]
6. (Christianity) Each of the three hypostases of the Trinity.^[1][13]
7. (law) A being or body with rights and duties before the law: pessoa jurídica, pessoa física.^[4][15][1]
8. (philosophy) The human being as a spiritual individual, with reason, self-consciousness and moral worth.^[4]

Word family

• pessoal
• impessoal
• impessoalidade
• apessoado
• pessoinha

Related words

• persona
• personagem
• personalidade
• personalizar
• personificar
• Galician persoa

Usage notes

Pessoa is also a Portuguese surname.^[1][19]

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 Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pessoa
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. pessoa
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pessoa
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pessoa
6. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. pessoa
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6430
8. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. persoa
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. persōna
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 395
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. personne
12. ^ a b c d 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, 216
13. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 443
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pessoa
15. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pessoa
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. pessoa
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pessoa
18. ^ 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. pessoa
19. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. pessoa