vontade

Forms

vontade f (plural vontades, diminutive vontadinha)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote voontade (uoontade); vontade is recorded from the 14th century, and the 16th century also wrote võtade.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin voluntās (“will, wish”), written Old Galician-Portuguese voontade in the oldest texts.^[2][4][5][1] The Latin /l/ between vowels was lost, leaving the two vowels of the old form, which later merged.^[4][2] Corominas notes that the Portuguese word shows this regular, inherited treatment, while Spanish voluntad kept the /l/ under the influence of written Latin.^[6]

The same Latin word is Galician vontade, Catalan voluntat, French volonté and Italian volontà.^[7][1]

The Latin noun is formed from volō (“to want”) with the suffix -tās.^[8] Wiktionary derives it from an old stem of the present participle, compare volēns (“willing”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nascentes quotes a law text of 1262 in the Leges: E se algum homem filha alhena … contra ssa uoontade, “if any man takes another's daughter … against her will”.^[4] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use voontade for the will and its wishes: the Virgin colle por feito a voontade “takes the will for the deed”.^[3] Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century from Cunha's medieval index.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In notarial Galician-Portuguese voontade was a legal term for the free will of a party: a sale of 1342 is made de bõ coraçõ et de boa voontade, and a will is a postromeyra voontade, a “last will”.^[3] Barbosa (1611) glosses vontade with the Latin voluntas and has the phrase aa vontade d'alguem “at someone's will”.^[9] Bluteau (1712–1728) opens with the theological will of God.^[10] Morais (1789) adds “a bodily urge” (ter vontade de urinate or vomit) and “desire”.^[11]

Modern Portuguese uses the word for the faculty of will, for firmness of purpose (força de vontade) and for any wish or craving (ter vontade de).^[2][1] Philosophy uses it in such terms as vontade de potência, Nietzsche's “will to power”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1262 – contra ssa uoontade in a law text of the Leges.^[4]
• 13th century, second half – voontade in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3]
• 14th century – the spelling vontade.^[2]
• 1342 – de boa voontade in a deed of sale from Noia.^[3]
• c. 1431–1446 – first record in the CTA corpus, in the Vida do Infante Josafat.^[12]
• 16th century – the spelling võtade.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary has aa vontade d'alguem.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records ter vontade de for a bodily need.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. will: the faculty of choosing, of freely doing or not doing something.^[2][13][1]
2. Inner drive towards a goal; determination, firmness;^[2][14] força de vontade “willpower”.^[2][14]
3. desire, wish, urge;^[2][13][1] ter vontade de “to feel like (doing something)”.^[2][13][1]
4. Pleasure, appetite, gusto: doing something com vontade.^[2]
5. A whim or caprice; in the plural, a spoilt person's demands.^[2]
6. A wish expressed so as to be carried out;^[2] últimas vontades “last wishes”.^[2]
7. (philosophy) The will as the source of moral action, or as an impulse of desire, in the various schools.^[2]

Word family

• à-vontade

Related words

• voluntário
• voluntarioso
• Latin voluntās
• Galician vontade
• Spanish voluntad

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vontade
3. ^ a b c d e 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. voontade
4. ^ a b c d Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 529
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vontade
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 839
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9438
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. voluntās
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vontade
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vontade
11. ^ 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, 535
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vontade
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vontade
14. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9578