prefeitura

Forms

prefeitura f (plural prefeituras)^[1] Houaiss records prefeytura in the 14th century and the Latin spelling prefectura in 1589.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praefectura (“office of a prefect, command, government”).^{[2][4][5][6][7]} Nascentes calls it semi-learned, since the Latin ⟨ct⟩ became /it/ as in popular words.^[4] The Latin noun is formed on praeficiō (“to put in charge”) with the suffix -ura, beside praefectus (“prefect”), the source of prefeito.^[8][9][1] The same Latin word is Spanish prefectura, French préfecture and Italian prefettura.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 14th century, spelt prefeytura.^[2][3] Houaiss gives the Roman sense, one of the large divisions of the Empire created by Constantine, as the first of his senses.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Vieira (1871–1874) defines the dignity or office of a prefect and the territory under his rule.^[11] After the French prefects of the departments the word also named their office and building.^[2][12] In Brazil, where the head of a municipality is the prefeito, prefeitura came to mean the municipal executive and the city hall; the original Caldas Aulete already marks the sense of heading a municipality as Brazilian.^[2][13][14] In Portugal the DLP and Porto also record a group of pupils of a seminary.^[7][15]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, prefeytura.^[2][3]
• 1589 – the Latin spelling prefectura.^[2]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira defines the office and the territory of a prefect.^[11]
• 1881 – the original Caldas Aulete records the Brazilian sense.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) Each of the great divisions of the Roman Empire made by Constantine.^[2][6][14]
2. The office of a prefect, and its term.^{[2][7][14][1]}
3. The office and offices of the prefect of a French department.^[2][15][12]
4. (Brazil) The executive power of a municipality: a Prefeitura de Salvador.^[2][14]
5. (Brazil) The building of the municipal administration; city hall, town hall.^[2][6][1]
6. A group of pupils of a seminary.^[7][15]

Related words

• prefeito
• Latin praefectus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. prefeitura
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. prefeito
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. prefeitura
5. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. prefeitura
6. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. prefeitura
7. ^ 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. prefeitura
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. praefectura
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. prefeito
10. ^ 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. prefectura
11. ^ 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, 899
12. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. prefeitura
13. ^ a b 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. prefeitura
14. ^ a b c d 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. prefeitura
15. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7422