resistência

Forms

resistência f (plural resistências)^[1] In the 15th century the word was written resistencia, resisteença and resystemcya.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin resistentia (“resistance”), a learned word first recorded in the 15th century.^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes calls it semi-learned.^[5] Lewis and Short mark the Latin noun as late, used by Augustine for classical repugnantia.^[6] It is formed from the present participle of resistō (“to halt; to resist”), from re- (“back”) and sistō (“to stop; to stand”).^[1][7] In Portuguese it is the noun of resistir, recorded since the 14th century, beside resistente, recorded since the 15th.^[3][1]

The same Latin noun gave Spanish resistencia, Galician resistencia, Catalan resistència, French résistance and Italian resistenza.^[1][4]

That Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *stísteh₂ti, a reduplicated present of the root *steh₂- (“to stand”); it is related to stō (“to stand”) and to ἵστημι (hístēmi).^[1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *s(t)i-sta/o-, from *sti-sth₂- (“to make stand”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the first records to the 15th century, already in the general sense “the act of resisting”.^[2][3] A letter of 1600 writes it resistẽtia.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The first dictionaries render the word with Latin repugnantia “opposition”: Cardoso in 1569, Barbosa in 1611, Pereira in 1697.^[10][11][12] Bluteau defines it as the act of setting one force against another and gives military examples, such as a stout resistance at the gate of a camp.^[13]

Morais's edition of 1813 adds the physical sense, the reaction of the air or of water against bodies moving through them, beside armed opposition and the reluctance of the will, quoting the Lusíadas for “force enough to repel”.^[14] Vieira defines it first as the quality by which one body resists the action of another.^[15]

Modern Portuguese has technical senses in electricity (the resistance of a conductor, and a resistor or heating element), in medicine (the resistance of germs to a drug, the defences of the body), in law and in psychoanalysis, and the name of the resistance movements of occupied countries.^[2][16] In Brazil it is also a defensive move in capoeira and, at the ports, the crew who move cargo on shore.^[2]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records, as resistencia, resisteença and resystemcya.^[2][3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses resistencia with Latin repugnantia.^[10]
• 1600 – resistẽtia in a letter.^[9]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists the word, again as repugnantia.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as setting one force against another.^[13]
• 1813 – Morais adds the resistance of air and water to moving bodies.^[14]
• 1813 – first record of irresistível.^[3]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira defines the quality by which one body resists another.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of resisting; opposition, refusal to give in to another's will: A proposta encontrou forte resistência.^[2][17][1]
2. defence against an attack; a struggle kept up to defend oneself.^[2][18]
3. The ability to bear fatigue, hunger, illness or effort; stamina, endurance.^[2][17]
4. Firmness, persistence.^[2] (figurative) anything that hinders or stands in the way.^[2][19]
5. (physics) A force acting against the motion of a body: a resistência da água.^[2][17][1]
6. The property of a material of withstanding mechanical, physical or chemical agents.^[2][20]
7. (electricity) The electrical resistance of a conductor; a resistor, or a heating element that turns electric current into heat.^[2][1][16]
8. (politics, military) An organisation of civilians and soldiers fighting a foreign occupation by sabotage and guerrilla warfare, and the forces taking part in it.^[2][16]
9. (medicine) The capacity of the immune system to react against antigens; the capacity of a germ to withstand a drug.^[2]
10. (law) Violent opposition to an authority acting in its office; the right to resist unlawful orders.^[2][21]
11. (psychoanalysis) A patient's refusal to become aware of unconscious motives.^[2]
12. (capoeira) A defensive move in which the player crouches, shielding the head with one hand and leaning on the other.^[2]

Word family

• irresistível
• irresistibilidade

Related words

• resistente
• resistir
• Latin resistentia
• Spanish resistencia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. resistência
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. resistência
4. ^ a b 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. resistencia
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. resistência
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. resistentia
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. resistō
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b 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. resistência
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. resistencia
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. resistencia
12. ^ 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. resistencia
13. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. resistencia
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 612
15. ^ 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, 240
16. ^ a b c Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. resistência
17. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. resistência
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. resistência
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8034
20. ^ 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. resistência
21. ^ 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. resistência