“Maquiavélico” versus “maquiaveliano” na língua e nos dicionários.

Abstract

Although the interpretations of Machiavelli’s work free from old prejudices are multiplying in Brazil, and although the word “maquiaveliano” has already been attested, for some decades, with a denotative meaning – similar to the one attested in general for “machiavelliano” in the Italian language and dictionaries – nevertheless it is only as a synonymous of “maquiavélico” that it has recently appeared in some monolingual Brazilian dictionaries. On the contrary, the increasing attestations of the adjective “maquiaveliano”, used with denotative meaning also as a semantic-cultural antidote, imposes a redefinition of the entire family of the words deriving from the proper name ‘Maquiavel’ by monolingual dictionaries. That is to say, by the works which for definition should reflect the present outline of the Brazilian language and culture in its wholeness and specificity.