praça

Forms

praça f (plural praças)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote praça, praza, plaça and plaza.^[2] Houaiss records praazas, praaças and prazas in the 14th century and plaças in the 15th.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *plattea, a Vulgar Latin form of Latin platēa (“broad street; square”), written Old Galician-Portuguese praza and Old Galician-Portuguese plaça in the oldest texts.^[3][4][2] Nascentes and Wiktionary call it semi-learned, coming to Portuguese through the old form with /pl/.^[5][1] Houaiss adds that Machado allows for the influence of French place.^[3] The old texts have both /pl/ and /pr/ in the first syllable.^[2] Corominas notes that the voiceless affricate of the medieval Spanish form requires a double /tt/, and the DHLF explains the doubling by the influence of *plattus (“flat”).^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Galician praza, Spanish plaza, Catalan plaça and Italian piazza, as well as the French word.^[8][1]

The Latin word was taken from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa), short for πλατεῖα ὁδός (plateîa hodós, “broad way”), the feminine of πλατύς (platús, “wide, broad”).^[9][1][10] Beekes derives the Greek adjective from a *pl̥th₂-u-, the source also of the Sanskrit word for “broad”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Two charters of 1265 already have entre la praza de Pedro S. “between the square of Pedro S.” and daquela praça de Rua de Nalar “of that square of the Rua de Nalar”, and a third the form plaza.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria put something na porta da praça, “at the gate of the square”.^[2] Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval language praça was a public square and an open space, as when the Crónica Troiana speaks of great and very wide squares in front of the temple of Diana.^[2] The locution em praça “in public” is recorded in the 14th century and the adverb praceiramente “publicly” in the 15th.^[4] The sense “fortified place” is also 14th-century, and the Crónica Geral uses the word for a battlefield.^[3][2] Viterbo explains dar praça “to accept battle, take the field” from a chronicle of Afonso V.^[12]

Bluteau gives the public place for fairs, games and bullfights and the market place, with the fish and vegetable markets.^[13] Morais (1789) adds the auction (vender em praça), the body of merchants of a city (a praça de Lisboa) and the fortress.^[14] Houaiss adds “taxi rank”, and Brazilian “town” and “soldier of the police”; and in the army a praça is a soldier below the rank of officer.^[3][10]

The word passed into Kabuverdianu as prása, into Papiamentu as plasa and into Tetum as prasa.^[1]

Timeline

• 1265 – praza and praça in two charters.^[2]
• 13th century – praça in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][4]
• 14th century – the forms praazas and praaças; the sense “fortified place” and the phrase em praça “in public”.^[3][4]
• c. 1430 – praça in the Horto do Esposo.^[15]
• 15th century – praceiramente “publicly” and the form plaças.^[4][3]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates praça with Latin forum.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the squares for fairs, games and bullfights.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records the senses “auction” and “body of merchants”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A public square in a town, an open space surrounded by buildings; a largo.^[3][10][1]
2. A market place; a market.^[3][10]
3. A public garden or park with benches and trees.^[3][17]
4. A fortress, a fortified town.^[3][18]
5. The business and financial community of a city: Ele perdeu o crédito na praça.^[3][10]
6. (dated) A public auction.^[3][19]
7. A ring or arena for shows and bullfights.^[20][18]
8. A taxi rank.^[3]
9. (military) A soldier without rank, below the officers, and in Brazil a policeman.^[3][10][1]

Word family

• pracinha

Related words

• plateia
• Latin platea
• Galician praza
• Spanish plaza

Usage notes

In the military sense the word is also masculine or of either gender.^[3][1] Praça de armas is a parade ground.^[3] Wiktionary gives the learned plateia as its doublet.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. praça
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. praça
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. praça
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. praça
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 576
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. place
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6583
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. platea
10. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. praça
11. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. πλατύς
12. ^ 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, 235
13. ^ 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. praça
14. ^ 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, 226
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. praça
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. praça
17. ^ 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. praça
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. praça
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7390
20. ^ 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. praça