subsídio

Forms

subsídio m (plural subsídios)^[1] The oldest record and Cunha have the spelling sossidio.^[2][3] Wiktionary also lists subsidio as an alternative form.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin subsidium (“reserve troops; help, support”), a learned word.^[4][3][1][5] Houaiss dates it to the 15th century, and Lorenzo's chronology antedates Machado's 16th-century record, taken from Morais, to 1428, with the spelling Old Galician-Portuguese sossidio.^[4][2]

The same Latin noun is Galician subsidio, Spanish subsidio, Catalan subsidi, French subside, Italian sussidio and Romanian subsidiu.^[1][6] The Spanish word is first recorded in 1438, the French one in 1236.^[7][8]

In Latin the noun is formed from sub- (“under”) and sedeō (“to sit”) with the suffix -ium.^[9][1] It was first a military term, the troops held back in the third line of battle as a reserve;^[9][10] Varro explains the name from their waiting there.^[9][10] From this came "help, support" and "refuge".^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The record of 1428 in Lorenzo's chronology speaks of the men who apportioned a sossidio and of the collector of that sossidio, that is, a tax or levy.^[2] Medieval Latin already used the noun for the aid a vassal owed his lord.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) defines subsídio as help in money, soldiers or supplies for a military action or any civil or political enterprise, and records the subsídio litterario, the tax paid to support teachers.^[12] Bluteau (1712) gives both the military sense, "military help, reinforcement", and the general "aid".^[13] The modern senses are money: a grant from the state to an industry, to public works or to an allied state, and in Brazil the pay of members of the legislature.^[4][14] In the plural the word also means data or material for a study.^[4][15] In Portugal subsídio is also a benefit paid to a worker, as in subsídio de desemprego and subsídio de férias.^[16][15]

Timeline

• 1428 – sossidio in a record cited by Lorenzo.^[2]
• 15th century – Houaiss's first date.^[4]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives the military and the general sense.^[13]
• 1724 – subsidios in a private letter.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais defines the word and records the subsídio litterario.^[12]
• 1813 – first record of the verb subsidiar.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A grant of money from the government to an activity such as industry or farming, to keep prices low or to encourage exports; a subsidy: O governo cortou o subsídio ao leite.^[4][18]
2. A sum the state grants for works of public interest; subvenção.^[4][18]
3. A sum one state gives another under an alliance or treaty.^[4][19]
4. Financial help for people or institutions in difficulty; aid, relief.^[4][16]
5. (Portugal) A benefit paid to a worker for a particular purpose: subsídio de desemprego.^[16][15]
6. (in the plural, Brazil) The pay of members of the legislature.^[4][14]
7. (in the plural) Data, information or material for a study: Ela recolheu subsídios para o livro.^[4][15]

Word family

• subsidiar

Related words

• subsidiário
• presidir
• Latin subsidium
• Spanish subsidio

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. sossidio
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. subsídio
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. subsídio
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. subsídio
6. ^ 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. subsidio
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. subsidio
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. subside
9. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. subsidium
10. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. subsĭdĭum
11. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. subsidium
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, 426
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. subsidio
14. ^ a b 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. subsídio
15. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8683
16. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. subsídio
17. ^ 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. subsídio
18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. subsídio
19. ^ 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. subsídio