sentimento

Forms

sentimento m (plural sentimentos)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese sentir + -mento.^[2][3][4] Houaiss records it from the 14th century.^[2] Cunha instead derives it from Medieval Latin sentīmentum, which he records in Medieval Latin, and Wiktionary also calls it a learned borrowing from the Latin word.^[5][2][1] Machado saw the influence of French sentiment, a remodelling of Old French sentement, recorded in 1190.^[2]

sentir is from Latin sentiō (“to perceive, feel”).^[5][1] De Vaan derives the Latin verb from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to notice”), with a cognate in Lithuanian sintė́ti (“to think”).^[6] The same Latin word family gives Spanish sentimiento, Italian sentimento and Catalan sentiment.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are of the 14th century, in the sense “act or effect of feeling”.^[2] The Vida de Santo Elói of 1491 has sentimento.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first Portuguese–Latin dictionaries give the word the sense of grief: Cardoso (1569) glosses it aegrimonia, dolor, Barbosa (1611) payxão with Latin dolor, moeror, and Bluteau defines it as the pain one takes at something.^[8][9][10] Folqman (1755) adds “opinion”, and Morais (1789) “sensation, painful or pleasant”, “opinion, vote”, the sensibility of a loving soul, and the settling of a new building.^[11][12] The modern senses of feeling, emotion and affection grew on this base; in the plural the word means a person's moral qualities and condolences.^[2][4] In Rio Grande do Sul it is a lasting feeling of disappointment or hurt towards someone.^[13]

Timeline

• 1300s – first records, spelt semtymemto and sentimeeto.^[2]
• 1400s – the spellings sentimento, ssentimento and syntymento, and Cunha's century.^[2][5]
• 1491 – sentimento in the Vida de Santo Elói.^[7]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it as “grief, pain”.^[8]
• 1755 – Folqman records the sense “opinion”.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais lists sensation, opinion and sensibility.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or effect of feeling.^[2][4]
2. The capacity to feel; sensibility: tocar piano com muito sentimento.^[2][4]
3. A sense or awareness of something: o sentimento do dever.^[2][4]
4. An emotional or moral attitude towards something: sentimento religioso.^[2][4][3]
5. affection, love: O sentimento dela pelo irmão era profundo.^[2][4]
6. Sorrow, grief (pesar, mágoa).^[2][14]
7. An inner perception; intuition, foreboding.^[2][14]
8. (in the plural) A person's moral qualities.^[2][14]
9. (in the plural) condolences (pêsames).^[2][14][3]

Word family

• sentimental

Related words

• sentir
• sentido
• ressentimento
• Spanish sentimiento
• French sentiment

Usage notes

Sentimento de culpa and sentimento de inferioridade are terms of psychology and psychoanalysis.^[2] In Portugal the plural is used to offer condolences.^[3][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sentimento
3. ^ 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. sentimento
4. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sentimento
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sentir
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. sentimento
8. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sentimento
9. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sentimento
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sentimento
11. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sentimento
12. ^ 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, 392
13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. sentimento
14. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8415