próximo

Forms

próximo (feminine próxima, masculine plural próximos, feminine plural próximas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin proximus (“nearest, next”), a learned word.^[1][2][3] Houaiss records the 14th-century spellings Old Galician-Portuguese prouximo and Old Galician-Portuguese proximo, and Old Galician-Portuguese propximos and Old Galician-Portuguese prouxemos in the 15th.^[3]

The Latin adjective is the superlative of prope (“near”), formed with the suffix -simus.^[4][1] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *prokʷism̥mos.^[1]

The Latin word was inherited as Old French proisme and Old Occitan proisme; the Meyer-Lübke dictionary lists Italian prossimo, the Spanish form and the Portuguese word beside them.^[5] Spanish has two forms of it, prójimo (“fellow man”) and próximo (“near”), both first recorded in 1220–1250.^[6] García de Diego counts the second a learned word.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 14th century from Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese.^[3] Lorenzo's chronology quotes the Portuguese Regra de São Bento: seu proximo assi come si mesmo “his neighbour as himself”, the biblical sense of “fellow man”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The religious noun was the first use the dictionaries recorded: Cardoso in 1569 glosses proximo with Latin frater “brother”, and Barbosa in 1611 cites Luke's gospel for it.^[9][10] Bluteau gives the adjective “near, neighbouring” and its use for time, where o seculo proximo meant the century just past; he also sets out the theologians' view that one's neighbour is any being capable of eternal bliss, so that neither the devil nor the damned are anyone's proximos.^[11]

Today the adjective looks forward: a próxima semana is the coming week.^[3] It also describes close relatives, intimate friends and things much alike, and the masculine noun can mean the next person in a queue.^[3][12]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records; the Regra de São Bento has seu proximo “his neighbour”.^[3][8]
• 15th century – the noun spelt prouxemos.^[3]
• 1525 – the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana uses proximo.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses proximo with Latin frater.^[9]
• 1610 – a private letter of that year or earlier spells it prezomo.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists the adjective with Latin proximus.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the sense “immediately preceding” of time.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Near in space or time; neighbouring: uma aldeia próxima.^[3][15]
2. next, immediately following: no próximo mês.^[3][16]
3. About to happen, imminent.^[3][12]
4. Recent, not long past.^[3]
5. Of a relative, close, of the first degree.^[3][12]
6. Close, intimate: amigos próximos.^[3][12]
7. Much alike, similar.^[3]

Noun

1. The next one, the person who comes after.^[3]
2. One's fellow man, neighbour; humankind: amar o próximo.^[3][17]

Adverb

1. Near, nearby;^[3][17] próximo de, close to, almost.^[3][17]

Word family

• proximamente

Related words

• aproximar
• proximidade
• Latin proximus
• Spanish prójimo

Usage notes

The ⟨x⟩ is pronounced /s/.^[3][15][16] The DLP records Próximo Oriente for the Near East.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. próximo
3. ^ 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. próximo
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. proximus
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. proximus
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. próximo
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. proximus
8. ^ a b 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. próximo
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. proximo
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. proximo
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. proximo
12. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7565
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. proximo
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. próximo
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. próximo
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. próximo
17. ^ 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. próximo