protagonista

Forms

protagonista m or f by sense (plural protagonistas)^[1] The oldest form, of 1615, is protogonista;^[2][3] Houaiss records protagonísta in 1858, and Cunha dates protagonista to 1873.^[2][3]

Etymology

In Houaiss, Nascentes and the DLP it is borrowed from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής (prōtagōnistḗs, “one who fights in the front rank; the actor of the leading part”).^[2][4][5] Wiktionary and Cunha take the modern word from French protagoniste.^[1][3] Cunha adds that the old variant protogonista must have been formed in Portuguese from the Greek words, since the French word is recorded only in the 19th century and the Italian one in the 18th; the DHLF dates the French word to 1787.^[3][6]

The Greek word is πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”) with ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, “contestant, athlete”), the noun of ἀγωνίζομαι (agōnízomai, “to compete in the games, to fight”), from ἀγών (agṓn, “assembly; contest”).^[2] Nascentes notes that the word passed from the contest to the theatre.^[4] The Spanish cognate is protagonista.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1615 and spelt protogonista, already names the leading figure.^[2][3] In the Greek theatre the protagonist was the first actor, beside the deuteragonista and the tritagonista.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Vieira's dictionary (1871–1874) only refers the word to another headword.^[9] The old Caldas Aulete gives the actor who plays the main part and, figuratively, the person who has the first place in any public or private event.^[10] Today it is the main character of a play, novel, film or telenovela, and anyone at the centre of an event.^[2][5] Porto Editora also lists it as an adjective, “that plays the leading part”.^[11]

Timeline

• 1615 – first record, spelt protogonista.^[2][3]
• 1858 – Houaiss records the spelling protagonísta.^[2]
• 1873 – Cunha's date for protagonista.^[3]
• 1888 – first record in the Bahian documents of the CE-DOHS corpus.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history, theatre) The chief character of classical Greek drama, and the actor who played it.^[2][8]
2. The main character of a play, book, film or telenovela; the protagonist.^[2][5][1]
3. (figurative) A person who plays the leading part in an event or situation.^[2][13][1]

Adjective

1. That plays the leading part;^[2][11] (figurative) prominent.^[2][11]

Word family

• prota
• protagonizar

Related words

• deuteragonista
• tritagonista
• agonia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. protagonista
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. protagonista
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. protagonista
5. ^ 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. protagonista
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. protagoniste
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. protagonista
8. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. protagonista
9. ^ 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, 990
10. ^ 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. protagonista
11. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7543
12. ^ Carneiro, Zenaide de Oliveira Novais; Lacerda, Mariana Fagundes de Oliveira (orgs.), CE-DOHS: Corpus Eletrônico de Documentos Históricos do Sertão, Feira de Santana: UEFS, http://www5.uefs.br/cedohs, p. s.v. protagonista
13. ^ 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. protagonista