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prazer

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word prazer

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s the cantigas More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin placeo
Ultimate origin
Latin placeō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin placeō
Catalan plaure
Italian piacere
Old French plaisir
French plaisir
English please
English pleasure
Portuguese prazer
Romanian plăcea
Spanish placer
Derivations
From the same root
Latin complaceō ← placeō
Latin displiceō ← placeō
Latin placibilis ← placeō
Latin plācidus ← placeō
Latin placitus ← placeō
Latin plācō ← placeō
Italian spiacere ← piacere
English pleasurable ← plaisir
Romanian plăcere ← plăcea

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /pɾaˈzeʁ/, [pɾaˈzeh], /pɾaˈze(ʁ)/[1]
  • São-Paulo: /pɾaˈzeɾ/, /pɾaˈze(ɾ)/[1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /pɾaˈzeʁ/, [pɾaˈzeχ], /pɾaˈze(ʁ)/[1]
  • Caipira: /pɾaˈzeɻ/, /pɾaˈze(ɻ)/[1]

Forms

prazer m (plural prazeres)[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote prazer and plazer, and the verb had the preterite prougue or prougo and the subjunctive prouguesse, prouguer.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin placēre (“to please”), written Old Galician-Portuguese prazer and Old Galician-Portuguese plazer in the oldest texts.[2][5][1] The noun is the infinitive used as a noun, as it already was in the cantigas.[3] Carolina Michaëlis called it a semi-learned verb, much loved by the troubadours, and Wiktionary also treats it as semi-learned.[3][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician pracer, Spanish placer, Catalan plaure, Old Occitan plazer, French plaire and Romanian plăcea.[6][1] Other Romance languages too made a noun of the infinitive: Italian piacere, French plaisir and Romanian plăcere.[6]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *pl(e)h₂/₃k- (“to agree, be pleasant”), with a short vowel taken on beside the stative suffix; its only direct comparison is a Tocharian word for “agree”, and it is related to plācō (“to appease”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to 1152 from Machado's files, and the noun to the 13th century.[2] In the cantigas the verb is used only impersonally, “to please, to be to someone's liking”: Airas Nunes has praz-me de coraçom “it pleases me with all my heart”.[3][8] The noun already means “pleasure, liking, joy” in phrases such as aver prazer de, fazer prazer and tomar prazer, and veer prazer is “to be happy”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) translates the noun with Latin gaudium “joy”, and Barbosa (1611) has ter prazer and ter grande prazer.[9][10] Bluteau calls it a verbal noun and records casa de prazer, a country house with a garden and a fine view, and a meu prazer “at my will”.[11] Morais (1813) has a bel prazer “at one's pleasure”.[12]

The verb was gradually left to aprazer, which Cunha dates to the 16th century, and is now uncommon.[5][1] The noun took on the senses of sexual pleasure and of amusement, and technical senses in philosophy and psychology.[2] As an interjection, prazer! is the reply on being introduced, short for phrases such as é um prazer conhecê-lo.[1]

Timeline

  • 1152 – Houaiss's first date for the verb, from Machado.[2]
  • 13th century – the verb and the noun in the cantigas.[2][5][3]
  • c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437) is the first CTA text with the word.[13]
  • 1569 – Cardoso glosses prazer as gaudium.[9]
  • 1611 – Barbosa lists ter prazer.[10]
  • 1712–1728 – Bluteau records casa de prazer.[11]
  • 1813 – Morais has a bel prazer.[12]
  • 1871–1874 – Vieira enters the verb as irregular and impersonal.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. pleasure: a pleasant feeling, joy, contentment: Lia por puro prazer.[2][1][15]
  2. Sexual pleasure.[2][16]
  3. Goodwill, willingness: com todo o prazer.[2][17]
  4. amusement, distraction, diversion.[2][17]
  5. (philosophy) In hedonist ethics, the supreme good;[2] (psychology) one of the two poles of affective life, the opposite of pain.[2]

Interjection

  1. pleased to meet you.[1]

Verb

  1. (now uncommon, third person only) To please, the same as aprazer: praza a Deus.[1][2][18]

Word family

  • aprazer
  • aprazível
  • prazenteiro
  • prazimento
  • desprazer

Usage notes

The verb is defective, used only in the third person: praz, prazia, prouve, praza, prouvesse.[15][18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. prazer
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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. prazer
  4. ^ 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. prazer
  5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. prazer
  6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6557
  7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. placeō
  8. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. prazer
  9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. prazer
  10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. prazer
  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. prazer
  12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 484
  13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. prazer
  14. ^ 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, 888
  15. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. prazer
  16. ^ 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. prazer
  17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. prazer
  18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. prazer

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Prazer.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/prazer. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·