razão

Forms

razão f (plural razões)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote razon, razõ and rrazon; the 15th century has raçom, rezão and rezam, and rasão is recorded in 1789.^[2] Rezão survives in the dialects of Portugal.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ratiō (“reckoning, account; reason”), written Old Galician-Portuguese razon in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] Nascentes explains the sense: the idea of thinking leads to comparing, looking for relations and finding causes.^[4] The learned ração “ration” and rácio “ratio” are its doublets.^[1][5]

The same Latin word is Galician razón, Spanish razón, Catalan raó, French raison and Italian ragione.^[5][1]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from ratus (“counted, fixed”), the past participle of reor (“to think, believe”), whose first sense was “to count”; he reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₁- and compares Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌸𐌾𐍉 (raþjō, “number, account”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 13th-century Cancioneiro da Ajuda razon means “reason, reasoning”, “right, justice” (fazer razon “to act justly”), “motive, cause” and the text or subject of a song as opposed to its melody, the som.^[7] The cantigas d'amigo have teer por razon “to consider just”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) records razão natural and he razão “it is right”.^[8] The commercial razão, masculine, is the ledger in which a merchant enters debits and credits.^[9][10] Mathematics uses the word for the ratio of two quantities, and philosophy for the faculty of thought that sets humans apart from other animals.^[2][11] The word passed into Papiamentu as rason.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – razon, razõ and the plural razões.^[2]
• 13th century, second half – the Cancioneiro da Ajuda uses razon for reason, right, motive and the text of a song.^[7]
• 15th century – the forms raçom, rezão and rezam.^[2]
• 1518 – razão in the Espelho de Cristina.^[12]
• 1538 – Rezam in a private letter.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Razão as Latin ratio.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa records razão natural.^[8]
• 1789 – the spelling rasão.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. reason, the faculty of thinking, understanding and judging.^[2][15][1]
2. Good sense, judgement; sound mind: perder a razão “to lose one's reason”.^[2][16]
3. cause, motive: Ninguém sabe a razão da demora.^[2][15][1]
4. An argument or justification, often in the plural.^[2][16]
5. Rightness; justice: ter razão “to be right”.^[2][15][1]
6. (mathematics) A ratio;^[11][16][1] (finance) a percentage, rate of interest.^[11][16][1]
7. (old) News, information.^[2][16]
8. (masculine, bookkeeping) A ledger.^[10][16]

Word family

• razoar
• arrazoar
• razoável
• desrazão

Related words

• raciocinar
• raciocínio
• racional
• ração
• rácio
• Latin ratio
• Galician razón

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. razão
3. ^ 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. razão
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. razão
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7086
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. reor
7. ^ a b c 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. razon
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. razão
9. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. razão
10. ^ 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. razão
11. ^ a b c 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. razão
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. razão
13. ^ 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. razão
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. razão
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. razão
16. ^ a b c d e f Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7791