promessa

Forms

promessa f (plural promessas)^[1] Houaiss records promesa and promissa in the 14th century and promiçias in the 15th.^[2] Cunha also has promissa in the 14th.^[2][3] The TLPGP records the dialect form premessa in Portugal.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin prōmissa (“promise”), written Old Galician-Portuguese promessa from the 13th century.^[2][3][1] In Latin the form was the neuter plural of prōmissum (“promise”), which Vulgar Latin took as a feminine singular.^[2][5] Cunha and Aurélio name the source Medieval Latin promissa.^[2][3][6][5] Houaiss puts the open /ɛ/ down to metaphony.^[2] The DLP and Porto Editora derive it instead through French promesse.^[7][8]

The same word is Spanish promesa, Galician promesa, Catalan promesa and Italian promessa.^[9][1]

The Latin noun is the past participle of prōmittō (“to send forth; to promise”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology finds it in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: pois que a promessa fez “since she had made the promise”, and a woman who fez promessa to bring a child's weight in wax to the Virgin if she had a son.^[11] Another cantiga speaks of breaking a promise, britar sa promessa.^[11] The first records already have the religious sense of a vow to a saint beside the general sense.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana uses it for a promise between people.^[11] Viterbo (1798–1799) explains an old legal sense, a payment a tenant promised the steward in return for his favour.^[12] Barbosa (1611) has comprir a promessa “to keep the promise”, and Bluteau (1712–1728) records the jurists' view of promises as agreements between private parties.^[13][14]

Houaiss marks the sense “offer of gifts as a bribe” obsolete, and records the figurative “hope founded on appearances”, as in a promise of rain.^[2] In popular religion a promessa is a vow to God, the Virgin or a saint, paid with prayers, penances or ex-votos.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3][11]
• 14th century – the variants promesa and promissa.^[2][3]
• c. 1450 – promessa in the Livro das Três Virtudes.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it promissus.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists comprir a promessa.^[13]
• 1798–1799 – Viterbo records the old legal sense of a payment to the steward.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of promising.^[2][6]
2. A promise: an assurance that one will give or do something: Fez a promessa de voltar cedo.^[2][1]
3. A commitment, spoken or written, to perform an act or take on an obligation.^[2][8]
4. The thing promised.^[2][6]
5. (obsolete) An offer of gifts or favours as a bribe.^[2][7]
6. (figurative) A hope founded on appearances; a sign of something to come.^[2][1]
7. (religion) A vow made to God, the Virgin or a saint to obtain a grace.^[2][15]

Word family

• promesseiro

Related words

• prometedor
• prometedoramente
• prometer
• prometido
• prometimento
• Latin prōmissum
• Spanish promesa

Usage notes

The saying promessa é dívida “a promise is a debt” and the phrases promessa de casamento “promise of marriage”, promessa de compra e venda (a preliminary contract of sale) and quebrar promessa “to break a promise” are common.^[2][1] On the river Minho, promessa was the shad taken from a large catch for the boat that made it.^[4]

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 n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. promessa
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. promessa
4. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. promessa
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. promissa
6. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. promessa
7. ^ a b 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. promessa
8. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7516
9. ^ 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. promesa
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. prōmissum
11. ^ a b c d e 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. promessa
12. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 245
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. promessa
14. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. promessa
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. promessa
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. promessa
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. promessa