repouso

Forms

repouso m (plural repousos)^[1] The 15th century writes repouso, repouzo and rrepouso;^[2][3][1] repoiso is a variant still in use.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Portuguese repousar (“to rest”).^[2][3][4][1] The verb is from Late Latin repausō (“to halt awhile, rest”).^[5][6][1]

The Latin verb is formed from re- and pausō (“to halt, rest”), from pausa (“pause”), which goes back to Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis, “stopping, pause”).^[1][7]

The nouns Spanish reposo, French repos, Italian riposo and Romanian repaus belong to the same family.^[1] Bluteau derived the Portuguese word from the Italian or the French one.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the noun to the 15th century, and Cunha's addenda give a record in the Portuguese Esopo, a 15th-century book of fables.^[2][5] The Livro das Três Vertudes (copied after 1450) uses it in the sense “rest, quiet”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) translate it with Latin quies “rest”.^[10][11] Bluteau adds the sense of physics, a body at rest, and quotes Rodrigues Lobo for the rest of the night.^[8] Morais (1813) has repouso eterno “eternal rest”, the life after death.^[12] Michaelis marks “anchorage” as obsolete, and Porto Editora records the state of land left fallow.^[13][14] Labour law gave repouso semanal, the weekly day off.^[2]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records, spelt repouso, repouzo and rrepouso.^[2][5]
• c. 1450 – the Livro das Três Vertudes.^[9]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it with Latin quies.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines rest in physics and derives the word from Italian or French.^[8]
• 1813 – Morais records repouso eterno.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of resting; rest, a break from work: Depois da operação ficou uma semana em repouso.^[2][3][1]
2. Absence of movement; immobility.^[2][3]
3. (figurative) Peace of mind; tranquillity.^[2][15][1]
4. sleep.^[2][1]
5. A pause in reading aloud or reciting.^[2]
6. (agriculture) The state of land left uncultivated; pousio.^[14]
7. (euphemistic) The state of being dead: repouso eterno.^[2][1]

Related words

• repousado
• repousante
• repousar
• pousar
• pausa
• Spanish reposo

Usage notes

Repouso absoluto and repouso relativo are terms of mechanics, for a body that does not move at all and one that does not move relative to others.^[16][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. repouso
3. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. repouso
4. ^ 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. repouso
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. repousar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. repausō
7. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. repauso
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. repouso
9. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. repouso
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. repouso
11. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. repouso
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 14
13. ^ 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. repouso
14. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8008
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. repouso
16. ^ 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. repouso