remissão

Forms

remissão f (plural remissões)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin remissiō (“a sending back; slackening; release”), the noun of remittō (“to send back; to let go, slacken”).^[2][3][1][4] Nascentes calls it a semi-learned form.^[5] The oldest spellings are Old Galician-Portuguese remisson in the 13th century and rremjssom in the 14th.^[5][2] The Christian sense “forgiveness of sins” was already the Latin word's in the Middle Ages.^[6]

The same Latin word was taken as Galician remisión, Spanish remisión, Catalan remissió, French rémission and Italian rimessione.^[1][7][8] Houaiss also records the archaic forms remijmento (1270) and remimento (15th century).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century, where remisson means a ransom: a captive is taken to Ronda por aver del remisson “to get a ransom for him”.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

Cunha's first sense is “compensation, pardon”, and the forgiveness of a fault, a debt or a sin has stayed at the centre of the word.^[3][2] Vieira illustrates the sense “indulgence, mercy” from Damião de Góis, where priests with bastard sons lose their benefices sem nenhuma remissão.^[10] Morais (1789) adds the act of sending, the lessening of a fever or illness, and the release from a debt.^[11] The medical sense of a temporary lessening of symptoms, and the cross-reference that sends a reader to another part of a book, are the main modern additions; the set phrase sem remissão means “inexorably, without fail”.^[2][12][13] Schlee notes that in Rio Grande do Sul the word is also written for remição in the sense “forgiveness of sins”.^[14]

Timeline

• 13th century – remisson “ransom” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[9][2]
• 14th century – the spellings remisson and rremison.^[3]
• 15th century – remissão, remissõ and remyssom.^[2]
• 1668 – a private letter of that year or earlier writes Remisão.^[15]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it with Latin remissio.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais lists the senses “sending”, “lessening of a fever” and “pardon”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of redeeming or forgiving; a pardon, as of a penalty or debt.^[2][17][1]
2. Mercy, clemency, indulgence.^[2][12]
3. (Christianity) The forgiveness of sins granted by the Church.^[2][17]
4. Lack of energy or vigour; slackness.^[2][13]
5. An interval or interruption between the stopping and the resuming of something.^[2][18]
6. Relief, consolation.^[2][12]
7. (medicine) A temporary lessening of the symptoms of a disease; remission.^[2][13][1]
8. The act of sending something on; in a book or dictionary, a cross-reference to another place.^[2][19]
9. sem remissão: inexorably, without fail.^[12][13]

Related words

• remitir
• remir
• remissível
• remitente
• remessa
• Latin remissiō

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 o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. remissão
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. remissão
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. remissiō
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. remissão
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. remissio
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. remisión
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. rémission
9. ^ a b 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. remisson
10. ^ 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, 193
11. ^ 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, 319
12. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. remissão
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. remissão
14. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. remissão
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. remissão
16. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. remissão
17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. remissão
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7975
19. ^ 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. remissão