prisão

Forms

prisão f (plural prisões)^[1] Old forms include presion and prisone in the 12th century, prijon, prison and prysõ in the 13th, prisam (1393), prigon and priiom in the 14th, and prisão, prizom and presam in the 15th.^[2][3]

Etymology

In Houaiss's view it is inherited from Latin prehēnsiō (“a seizing, arrest”), written Old Galician-Portuguese prison and Old Galician-Portuguese prijon in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4] Nascentes and Aurélio start from the contracted form prēnsiō and a Vulgar Latin form that had lost its /n/, which they take to have given the archaic Old Galician-Portuguese presão.^[5][6][7] Medieval Latin documents do write it presio, prisio and priso.^[8]

Michaëlis, in her glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda, thought the form of the cantigas perhaps came from French.^[9] Vieira (1871) and the Academy's dictionary derive the word from Old French prison, and Wiktionary treats the Galician-Portuguese form as a borrowing from Old French.^{[9][10][11][1]} The French word comes from the same Latin noun through a contracted form.^[12] preensão, taken from Latin in the 19th century, is a learned doublet.^[1][13]

The Latin noun is formed from prehendō (“to seize”) with the suffix -tiō; it meant the act of seizing, and a magistrate's right of arrest.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first dates, presion in 1130 and prisone in 1162, come from Machado's collection of early records.^[2] In the cantigas the word means a prison or captivity, and figuratively someone's power: sacar de prison “to take out of prison”, fazer entrar en prison “to put in prison”, and a girl's plea Sacade-me, madre, destas prijões “Mother, take me out of these prisons”.^[9][4]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates to the 13th century the sense “rope, chain or fetter that holds someone”.^[2] Barbosa (1611) has three senses: the capture, the irons or chains that bind the prisoner, and the gaol itself.^[14] Morais (1813) adds the halter or hobble of an animal and figurative senses: anything that binds or holds the mind, as music holds the soul.^[15]

Modern senses widen the figure to anything that restricts freedom: a stifling place, a tie of affection, a job one cannot leave.^[2][16] The phrase prisão de ventre is constipation.^[2][1] In Madeira a prisão is a clothes peg.^[1]

Timeline

• 1130 – presion, and in 1162 prisone, in the records Houaiss cites from Machado.^[2]
• 13th century – prison and prijon in the cantigas.^[3][9][4]
• 1393 – the spelling prisam.^[2]
• 15th century – the modern spelling prisão first appears.^[2]
• 1542 – prisão in a private letter.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa distinguishes the capture, the chains and the gaol.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais records figurative senses.^[15]
• 1871 – Vieira derives the word from French prison.^[10]
• 1877 – the learned doublet preensão is first recorded, in Morais's dictionary.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of arresting someone; capture (captura), detenção: A polícia anunciou a prisão do suspeito.^[2][1]
2. The state of being a prisoner; captivity (cativeiro).^[2][1]
3. A prison, a gaol: Passou dez anos na prisão.^[2][16][1]
4. A sentence of imprisonment: prisão perpétua, prisão preventiva.^[16][1]
5. An enclosed space where one feels shut in.^[2][18]
6. A rope, chain or fetter (grilhão) that holds someone.^[2][6]
7. (figurative) A bond or tie that limits a person's freedom; something that captivates the mind; tiring work one cannot give up.^[2][19]
8. (music) A tie joining two notes of the same pitch.^[2]
9. (Madeira) A clothes peg.^[1]

Word family

• aprisionar
• prisioneiro
• prisão de ventre
• prisão perpétua
• prisão preventiva

Related words

• preensão
• prender
• preso
• Latin prehēnsiō
• French prison

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 n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. prisão
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. prisão
4. ^ a b c 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. prison
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. prisão
6. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. prisão
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. prehensio
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. prehensio
9. ^ a b c d 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. prison
10. ^ 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, 948
11. ^ 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. prisão
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. prison
13. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. preensão
14. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. prisão
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 504
16. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. prisão
17. ^ 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. prisão
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7478
19. ^ 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. prisão