Etymologically
Log in

sede

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word sede

sede1 thirst

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s Cantigas de Santa Maria
Inherited from
Latin sitis
Ultimate origin
Latin sitis
Etymology tree of sede1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sitis
Catalan set
French soif
Italian sete
Portuguese sede
Romanian sete
From the same root · sede1
Latin sitiō ← sitis

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈse.d͡ʒi/[1]
  • Portugal: /ˈse.dɨ/, [ˈse.ðɨ][1]
  • Portugal, Southern: /ˈse.dɨ/[1]

Forms

sede f (plural sedes)[1] It is pronounced with closed /e/ (sede /ê/), and Houaiss records the spellings ssede (14th century) and seede (15th century).[2]

Etymology

The word for thirst is inherited from Latin sitis (“thirst”), written Old Galician-Portuguese sede in the oldest texts.[2][3][1] Nascentes and Aurélio start from the Latin form ⟨site⟩, which Michaelis explains as standing for the classical accusative ⟨sitim⟩.[4] Lewis and Short record the ablative ⟨site⟩ and the accusative ⟨sitem⟩ in late poets.[5][6][4][7]

The same Latin word is Galician sede, Spanish sed, Catalan set, French soif, Italian sete and Romanian sete.[8][1][9]

De Vaan reconstructs the Latin noun as *ksiti-, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰgʷʰítis (“destruction, perishing”).[10] Wiktionary explains the Latin initial ⟨s⟩ by a simplification of the initial cluster.[10][1] The OLD calls the origin doubtful.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology cites the Cantigas de Santa Maria: que non moiramos de sede “so that we do not die of thirst”.[12] The Crónica Troiana already uses it figuratively, of a sword that ha gran sede and would drink its enemies' blood.[12]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the figurative sense “ardent desire” to the 14th century, and the medieval Miragres de Santiago have visteme aver sede “you saw me thirsty”.[2][12] Barbosa (1611) notes that the Latin word was also used for vehement desire, and gives matar a sede “to quench one's thirst”.[13] Bluteau (1712–1728) devotes a long article to the medical causes of thirst.[14]

Modern senses include greed for money or power, impatience, and the dryness of unwatered land.[2][15] Fixed phrases include sede de sangue “bloodthirstiness”, matar a sede and com muita sede ao pote “too eagerly”.[2] A Portuguese dialect survey records ter sede a alguém “to want revenge on someone”.[16][2]

Timeline

  • 13th century – first record, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[2][3][12]
  • 14th century – the figurative sense “ardent desire”, and the spelling ssede.[2]
  • 14th century – first record of the adjective sederento “thirsty”.[3]
  • 15th century – the spelling seede.[2]
  • 1572 – first record of sedento “thirsty”.[3]
  • 1611 – Barbosa lists ter sede and matar a sede.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. thirst; the need or wish to drink: Depois da corrida tinha muita sede.[2][15][1]
  2. (figurative) An ardent desire: sede de liberdade.[2][6][1]
  3. (figurative) greed for wealth, power or honours.[2][15]
  4. (figurative) impatience or eagerness to reach some goal.[2][4]
  5. (figurative) Dryness of land that lacks water.[2][15]

Word family

  • sedento
  • dessedentar

sede2 seat, headquarters

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1446 Ordenações Afonsinas
Borrowed from
Latin sedes
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *sed-
Etymology tree of sede2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sēdēs
Italian sede
Portuguese sede

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈsɛ.d͡ʒi/[1]
  • Portugal: /ˈsɛ.dɨ/, [ˈsɛ.ðɨ][1]
  • Portugal, Southern: /ˈsɛ.dɨ/[1]

Forms

sede f (plural sedes)[1] It is pronounced with open /ɛ/ (sede /é/).[15][17]

Etymology

The word for a seat is borrowed from Latin sēdēs (“seat, residence”), taken by the learned route.[2][5][1] Houaiss and Cunha treat sé “see, cathedral” as the popular form of the same Latin word, so the two are doublets.[2][18][1]

The learned word is also Spanish sede and Galician sede.[19][20]

The Latin noun is a derivative of sedeō (“to sit”), from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”), the root of sit.[10][1] Wiktionary notes that its long vowel matches *sētiją (“seat”), though the two cannot be traced to one form.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1446, from the Ordenações Afonsinas, in the sense “seat, chair”.[2] Cunha dates it to the 15th century and cites an earlier form seeda from a 14th-century text.[3]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1813) still defines it as “seat, chair”, cites it from the Ordenações, and gives Santa Sede Apostólica for the Church of Rome and a masons' sense, the stone seat in a window.[21] The ecclesiastical senses, a bishop's see and his jurisdiction, follow Medieval Latin usage.[2][22] Later the word came to mean the place where a government, a court or a company is based, and in Brazil also the main house of a large farm.[2][17] It also means “venue”, the place where an event is held.[2][17][1]

Timeline

  • 1446 – first record, in the Ordenações Afonsinas.[2]
  • 1813 – Morais lists Santa Sede Apostólica and the stone window seat.[21]
  • 1836 – first record of the adjective sedal.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A place to sit; a seat, chair.[2][6]
  2. (architecture) A stone seat set into the wall beside a window, in old buildings.[2][15]
  3. (ecclesiastical) The see of a bishop; the capital of a diocese and its jurisdiction.[2][23][1]
  4. The headquarters of a government, court, administration or company: a sede do banco.[2][6][1]
  5. The chief town of an administrative division.[2][15]
  6. (Brazil) The main house of a large farm or ranch.[2]
  7. A venue; the place where an event is held.[2][1]
  8. (figurative) The centre or seat of a faculty or process.[2]
  9. (technology) The part of a valve against which the plug closes.[2][4]

Word family

  • sediar

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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 t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sede
  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. sede
  4. ^ 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. sede
  5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sede
  6. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sede
  7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7961
  9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. sitis
  10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d 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. sede
  13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sede
  14. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sede
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. sede
  16. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. sede
  17. ^ a b c 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. sede
  18. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sé
  19. ^ 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. sede
  20. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. sede1
  21. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 676
  22. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. sedes
  23. ^ 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. sede

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Sede.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/sede. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·