Adjectives of evidential weight in Portuguese

The tenth entry is perfunctório, and English owns the same word, « perfunctory », with the same meaning — an inspection carried out because somebody had to carry it out, not because anybody wished to find anything. What repays a second look is the prefix, because it seems to say the reverse of what the word does. Per- is the Latin intensifier of thoroughness: it is the per- of « perfect », of « persuade », of « persist », the one that carries an action all the way to its end. The verb underneath is perfungi, perfunctus, and there per- means through in a colder sense — to get through with a duty, to discharge it and be rid of it. From that participle came late Latin perfunctorius, careless, and from it the adjective both languages now use. So the word never described work done thoroughly; it described work got through. O exame foi perfunctório says that the boxes were, in the fullest sense, ticked. Hold on to the dismissive half and the prefix stops misleading, in this word and in « perfunctorily » beside it.