regresso

Forms

regresso m (plural regressos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin regressus (“a going back, return”), a learned word, as Nascentes notes.^[2][3][4][1] Houaiss dates it to 1552 and Cunha to the 16th century.^[2][3] The Latin noun is formed from regredior (“to go back”) with the suffix of action nouns -tus.^[5][1] The verb is a compound of re- (“back”) and gradior (“to step, walk”), which Wiktionary derives from Proto-Indo-European *gʰredʰ- (“to walk, go”).^[6][1]

Cunha puts the word in the article on regredir, which he derives from Vulgar Latin *regredō in place of the classical deponent.^[3] The same Latin noun gave Spanish regreso, which Corominas dates to 1726, and to 1537 in the language of canon law.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bluteau's dictionary glosses the word as “the turning back, the return” and quotes, among others, the Monarchia Lusitana: se o tempo tivera regresso “if time could turn back”.^[9] Morais (1789) quotes the phrase o tempo passado não tem regresso “time gone by does not come back”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau and Morais already record figurative uses: a return to a bad life, a monk's return to the secular world, the force that pulls something back.^[9][11] The law gave it the sense “recourse”, a claim against someone else, which Medieval Latin regressus already had (“right of recovery”), and Aulete's first edition quotes it from the Portuguese Civil Code.^[12][13] The same dictionary records a local sense “distraction, recreation” from Turquel in Portugal.^[13] Today the word means above all a return to a place or a state;^[2][14] Michaelis adds a sociological sense, the loss of cultural features.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 1552 – first record of regresso, according to Houaiss.^[2]
• 1569 – regresos in a private letter.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau glosses it as “the return” and translates it with the Latin word.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais enters regresso “a turning back”, with its figurative uses.^[10]
• 1799 – first date Houaiss gives for the verb regressar, formed from the noun.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of going back to a place; return, coming back: O regresso a casa demorou duas horas.^[2][17][18]
2. A return to an earlier state or condition; regressão.^[19][20]
3. (law) recourse: a claim against someone, especially the holder's right to recover the value of a protested bill from the drawer or endorsers.^[18][14][19]
4. (sociology) The loss of cultural features through a lack of control over the natural or social environment.^[14]

Word family

• regressar

Related words

• regredir
• regressão
• regressivo
• progresso
• Latin regressus
• Spanish regreso

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. regresso
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. regresso
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. regresso
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. regressus
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. gradior
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. regresso
8. ^ 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. regresso
9. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. regresso
10. ^ 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, 312
11. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 586
12. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. regressus
13. ^ a b 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. regresso
14. ^ a b c d 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. regresso
15. ^ 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. regresso
16. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. regressar
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. regresso
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. regresso
19. ^ 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. regresso
20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7935