regularidade

Forms

regularidade f (plural regularidades)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese regular + -idade, the adjective with the suffix that makes nouns of quality, as Houaiss, Aurélio, the DLP and Porto Editora analyse it.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary instead treats it as a learned borrowing of Late Latin rēgulāritās, with the analysis into adjective and suffix as a surface one.^[1] The Latin noun is formed from rēgulāris with the suffix -tās.^[1]

The adjective comes from the Latin word, which first meant “according to the rule, canonical”, and goes back to rēgula (“rule”).^[6] The corresponding nouns elsewhere are Galician regularidade and French régularité.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1611 and defines it simply as the quality of being regular.^[2] In Bluteau's dictionary of the early 18th century the first sense is religious: the strict keeping of a monastic rule, so that a religious who lives com muyta regularidade observes the discipline of the order.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Already in Bluteau the word also covers the steady working of a clock, the order of a military camp laid out by the rules of the art, and the constancy of natural faculties.^[8] Morais (1813) lists conformity with the rules of an art, as in a painting, then religious observance, and then uniformity, as of the swings of a pendulum or the movement of the stars.^[9] Vieira adds a geometric sense, the equality of all the sides and angles of a figure, and the sense of proportion and harmony.^[10] Modern dictionaries keep the monastic sense at the end of the list and add punctuality and normality.^[11][5]

Timeline

• 1611 – first record, as Houaiss dates it.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as monastic discipline and applies it to clocks and army camps.^[8]
• 1786 – a private letter in the Post Scriptum corpus has regularidade.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais enters it with the senses of conformity to rule, religious observance and uniformity;^[9][13] Cunha dates the word from this dictionary.^[9][13]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira adds the geometric sense.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being regular: steady, even and without changes or breaks.^[2][14]
2. conformity with laws, rules or accepted practice.^[4][11]
3. Good proportion and harmony (harmonia) between the parts of a whole: a regularidade do desenho.^[11][5]
4. Order and method (método); the exact fulfilment of one's duties.^[14][11]
5. Punctuality (pontualidade).^[5][11]
6. (religion) Strict observance of the rule of a monastic order.^[4][11]

Word family

• irregularidade

Related words

• regra
• regulamento
• Latin rēgula
• Spanish regularidad

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. regularidade
3. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. regularidade
4. ^ 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. regularidade
5. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7938
6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. regular
7. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. regularidade
8. ^ 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. regularidade
9. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 587
10. ^ 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, 167
11. ^ a b c d e f 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. regularidade
12. ^ 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. regularidade
13. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. regra
14. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. regularidade