processo

Forms

processo m (plural processos)^[1] The oldest texts write proçesso beside processo and proceso.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin prōcessus (“a going forward, advance; course, progress”), a noun built on the stem of prōcēdō (“to go forward, advance”).^[2][4][5][1] The verb is made of prō- (“forth”) and cēdō (“to go”).^[1] Houaiss dates the Portuguese word to 1302, from a record found by Lorenzo, written Old Galician-Portuguese proçesso.^[2][3]

Nascentes explains the legal sense from the literal one: a lawsuit “goes forward” through its stages until the judge decides it.^[5] The Latin noun had already taken the senses “legal proceedings”, “procession” and “method” in the Middle Ages.^[6]

The same Latin word gave Spanish proceso and Italian processo, and the doublets French procès and French processus, the second borrowed in 1541.^[7][1][8] Cunha treats procissão, from the related Latin prōcessiō, in the same article.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1302, is legal: todo o proçesso do pleito “the whole record of the lawsuit”.^[3] A document of 1332 has ẽno proçesso “in the proceedings”, and a chronicle of 1344 tells how the king had the proceso of an election read out before everyone.^[3] The word thus meant the written proceedings of a case from the start.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Beside the legal use, the dictionaries of the 16th and 17th centuries give the abstract sense: Cardoso and Pereira render it with Latin processus, and Barbosa (1611) pairs it with procedimento “proceeding”.^[9][10][11] Bluteau defines it as a continuation or order of events that follow one another, and Morais (1789) quotes no processo do tempo “in the course of time” from 16th-century authors.^[12][13] Folqman (1755) gives the legal sense with its synonyms feito and autos.^[14]

Houaiss dates the sense “series of acts of a court case” to the 15th century.^[2] The sense “method, way of doing something” is in Silva Bastos (1912), with the medical one, the normal or abnormal course of an organic phenomenon.^[15] Modern dictionaries add technical senses: the anatomical one, an outgrowth of a bone once called apófise, the physical, chemical and linguistic ones, and in computing a running program.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1302 – todo o proçesso do pleito in a legal record.^[3][2]
• 1332 – ẽno proçesso in another document.^[3]
• 1344 – a chronicle has the king read out the proceso of an election.^[3]
• 15th century – first date Houaiss gives for the sense “judicial proceedings”.^[2]
• c. 1450 – proçesso in the Livro das tres vertudes (copy after 1450).^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders processo with Latin processus.^[9]
• 1611 – Barbosa: processo, ou procedimento.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau: a sequence of events that follow one another.^[12]
• 1755 – Folqman gives the legal sense, “records of a lawsuit”.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais quotes no processo do tempo.^[13]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos lists “method” and the medical sense.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of going forward (proceder), continued activity, course: o processo de aprender uma língua.^[2][17][1]
2. A sequence of events or operations with some unity or regularity; development, progress.^[2][18]
3. A way of doing something; method, technique.^[2][19][1]
4. (administration) The file of papers and petitions about a matter, sent to an office.^[2][20]
5. (anatomy) A process, an outgrowth of a bone or organ, formerly called apófise.^[2][1]
6. (physics) The succession of states a system passes through between two states.^[2]
7. (law) The documents of a case; the lawsuit or trial itself: abrir um processo contra a empresa.^[2][21][1]
8. (pathology) The course of a disease.^[2][19]
9. (chemistry) The set of operations by which a chemical or industrial product is made.^[2]
10. (computing) A task or program being executed.^[1]

Word family

• processar
• processual
• processamento

Related words

• proceder
• procissão
• Latin prōcessus
• Spanish proceso

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. processo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. processo
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. processo
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. processo
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. processus
7. ^ 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. proceso
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. processus
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. processo
10. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. processo
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. processo
12. ^ 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. processo
13. ^ 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, 247
14. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. processo
15. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. processo
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. proçesso
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. processo
18. ^ 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. processo
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. processo
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. processo
21. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7488