pressa

Forms

pressa f (plural pressas)^[1] Houaiss records presa in the 14th century and preça in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pressa (“pressed, squeezed”), the feminine of pressus used as a noun, past participle of premō (“to press”).^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes instead took it, after the REW, as a noun formed from an unrecorded verb *pressar, the outcome of the Latin frequentative pressō (“to press”); the Aurélio gives both explanations.^[5][6][7] Nascentes also reports that Machado preferred the participle, with an old sense “jostling crowd” that Nascentes thought unrecorded.^[6]

The cognate in Spain is Spanish prisa, from the older Old Spanish priessa of the Cid, whose typical medieval sense was “agitated throng”, as the DCECH explains it from the Latin “pressed”.^[8][9] Compare also Italian pressa.^[5]

The Latin verb's perfect and participle probably continue Proto-Italic *pres-, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to push, beat, press”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Galician Crónica Troiana the word already has several senses: a throng of people (porla pressa non podia cavalgar “because of the crowd he could not ride”), haste (cavalgaron anbos por seu camiño a gran pressa “both rode their way in great haste”), close combat, and force or violence.^[10] In the cantigas it appears in the phrase a gran pressa “vehemently, hurriedly”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The crowd and combat senses of the medieval language match the Spanish priessa.^[10][8] Haste won out: the dictionaries from Cardoso (1569) render pressa with Latin festinatio “hurry” and celeritas “speed”, and Bluteau defines it as the opposite of leisure and delay.^[12][13][14] Barbosa (1611) records the proverb pressa mete lebre a caminho “haste puts the hare on the road”, which he matches with the Latin pedibus timor addit alas “fear lends wings to the feet”.^[13]

Morais (1789) still has a second sense “straits, distress, danger”, with nas pressas ninguem te acode “in your straits nobody helps you” from Sá de Miranda.^[15] Modern dictionaries keep “distress, tight spot” as a minor sense beside urgency, speed, impatience and bustle.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record.^[2][3]
• 14th century – pressa in the Trasladação de S. Nicolau.^[18]
• 14th century – first records of apressar and apressado;^[3] depressa follows in the 15th.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders pressa with Latin festinatio.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa records pressa mete lebre a caminho and de pressa “quickly”.^[13]
• 1755 – Folqman has de (ou à) pressa and a toda a pressa.^[19]
• 1789 – Morais records the sense “straits, danger”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. haste, lack of calm; rashness: Fez o exame com pressa e errou as contas.^[2][4][1]
2. The need to do or get something quickly; urgency: ter pressa.^[2][7]
3. Speed, quickness.^[2][20]
4. Bustle, intense activity.^[2][17]
5. Impatience.^[16][17]
6. A tight spot, a distressing situation.^[16][4]

Word family

• apressar
• apressado
• apressamento
• depressa

Related words

• pressura
• pressão
• Latin premō
• Spanish prisa

Usage notes

Common phrases are à pressa and the Brazilian às pressas “hurriedly, carelessly”, a toda a pressa “as fast as possible”, com pressa “in a hurry”, sem pressa “calmly” and dar-se pressa “to hurry up”.^[2][16] Aulete quotes the saying a pressa é inimiga da perfeição “haste is the enemy of perfection”.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pressa
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pressa
4. ^ a b c 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. pressa
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 415
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pressa
7. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pressa
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 653
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
10. ^ 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. pressa
11. ^ 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. pressa
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pressa
13. ^ a b c Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pressa
14. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pressa
15. ^ 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, 239
16. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pressa
17. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7453
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. pressa
19. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pressa
20. ^ 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. pressa
21. ^ 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. pressa