regressão

Forms

regressão f (plural regressões)^[1] Houaiss's first record, of 1540, spells the word regressam.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin regressio (“a going back, return; withdrawal”).^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word.^[5] The Latin noun is formed from regredior (“to go back, return”) with the suffix -tiō.^[6][1]

Portuguese has the noun regresso from the same verb, recorded from 1552, and regredir itself, which Houaiss and Cunha record only in the 20th century.^[7][8][3] Cunha files this noun under that verb and dates it to the 16th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to 1540, in João de Barros's grammar.^[2] Morais quotes the passage: da privação ao habito não ha regressão “from privation there is no going back to possession”, so the first sense is a logical one, a return to an earlier state.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The older dictionaries give the word only as a synonym of regresso, “return, going back”: so Morais in 1789 and 1813, and Vieira in the 1870s.^[10][9][11] The old Caldas Aulete adds “retrogression” and “going back”.^[12]

The modern dictionaries add technical senses: in biology the return of a tissue or organism to an earlier stage, in medicine the return of a disease to an earlier phase, in psychology and psychoanalysis a return to forms of behaviour of an earlier age, and in statistics a functional dependence between variables.^{[2][13][4][14]} Priberam and Michaelis also give a figure of rhetoric in which words are repeated in reverse order with another meaning, a sense the Latin word already had.^[15][16][17] In spiritism it names the supposed recovery of memories of past lives.^[18]

Timeline

• 1540 – regressam in Barros's grammar, the first record.^[2]
• 1552 – first record of the related noun regresso.^[7]
• 1789 – Morais lists regressão with the passage from Barros.^[10]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives it from Latin regressio.^[11]
• 20th century – first record of the verb regredir.^[8][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A return, a going back to the starting point; regresso.^[2][4][14]
2. regression, retrogression: a falling back to an earlier, less advanced state.^[2][13][14]
3. (biology) The return of a tissue, organ or organism to an earlier stage of development, or a reversal of the direction of evolution.^[2][13][15]
4. (medicine) The return of a disease to an earlier phase.^[13][14]
5. (psychology, psychoanalysis) A return to forms of behaviour typical of an earlier age, often as a defence against frustration.^[4][15][14]
6. (statistics) A functional dependence between two or more random variables, and the technique that estimates it.^[2][4][1]
7. (rhetoric) A figure in which words are repeated in reverse order with a different sense.^[15][16]

Related words

• regresso
• regressar
• regredir
• regressivo
• Latin regressio

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. regressão
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. regredir
4. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. regressão
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. regressão
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. regressio
7. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. regresso
8. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. regredir
9. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 586
10. ^ a b c 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, 312
11. ^ 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. 5, 166
12. ^ 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. regressão
13. ^ a b c d 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. regressão
14. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7934
15. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. regressão
16. ^ 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. regressão
17. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. regressio
18. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. regressão