universidade

Forms

universidade f (plural universidades)^[1] Old spellings are huniuersidade (14th century) and uniursydade (15th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ūniversitās (“the whole; a corporation, college”), written Old Galician-Portuguese huniuersidade in the 14th century.^[2][3][4] Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word.^[4] Wiktionary suggests it may have come through Old Spanish universidat, since the first universities of the Peninsula were founded in Spanish-speaking lands.^[1] Cunha takes the first sense, “universality”, straight from Latin, but the sense “institution of higher learning” from French université, dating it to 1813.^[3] Houaiss dates that sense to the 15th century, and Barbosa already records it in 1611.^[3][2][5]

The same Latin word is Spanish universidad, Catalan universitat, Italian università and Romanian universitate.^[1][6]

The Latin noun is formed from ūniversus (“whole, entire”) with -tās.^[7][1] The adjective is a compound of ūnus (“one”) and versus (“turned”), the past participle of vertō (“to turn”), so literally “turned into one”.^[8][1] In Medieval Latin the noun came to mean the body of masters and scholars of a university.^[9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the first record, huniuersidade, to the 14th century, in the sense “universality, totality”.^[2][3] The sense “university” follows in the 15th century according to Houaiss.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) still gives both senses: Latin universitas for “the whole of things” and academia for the schools.^[5] Feijó (1734) explains the second sense as the place where all letters are taught to all.^[10] Folqman (1755) gives a Universidade de Coimbra as his example, and the original Caldas Aulete notes that in Portugal a Universidade meant the establishment at Coimbra.^[11][12]

Vieira (1871–1874) describes the old university as a body of masters set up by public authority, with privileges, teaching theology, law, medicine and the seven liberal arts.^[13] By metonymy the word came to mean the buildings and the teachers, students and staff of the institution.^[2][14] The sense “universality” survives in the dictionaries.^[15] The word passed into Tetum.^[1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, spelt huniuersidade.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the spellings universidade and uniursydade, and the sense “university”.^[2]
• 1593 – first occurrence in the private letters of Post Scriptum.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses the word as escolas geraes.^[5]
• 1755 – Folqman cites a Universidade de Coimbra.^[11]
• 1813 – Cunha's date for the sense “institution of higher learning”.^[3]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira describes the history of the institution.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A university: an institution of higher education and research made up of faculties and schools: Entrou na universidade aos dezoito anos.^{[2][14][15][1]}
2. The buildings in which a university works; the campus.^[2][14]
3. The teachers, students and staff of a university.^[2][15]
4. Higher education in general.^[15]
5. (rare) Universality (universalidade), totality.^[2][15]

Related words

• universal
• universo
• universalidade
• universitário
• Latin ūniversitās
• Spanish universidad
• Galician universidade

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. universidade
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. universidade
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. universidade
5. ^ a b c Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. universidade
6. ^ 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. universidad
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ūniuersitās
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ūniuersus
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. universitas
10. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. universidade
11. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. universidade
12. ^ 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. universidade
13. ^ 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, 861
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. universidade
15. ^ a b c d e 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. universidade
16. ^ 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. universidade