apreendido

Apreendido is a Portuguese term meaning something that has been seized or apprehended by authorities. It functions as the past participle of the verb apreender and as an adjective. In legal and administrative language, the word commonly describes goods, documents, or persons subjected to seizure or custody during investigations, enforcement actions, or court procedures.

Etymology and forms: Apreender, from which apreendido is derived, comes from Latin apprehendere, meaning to seize. The form apreendido reflects gender and number: masculine singular apreendido, feminine singular apreendida; plural apreendidos (masc.) and apreendidas (fem.).

Usage and examples: As an adjective, apreendido describes items or materials that have been seized, for example, bens apreendidos (seized assets) or documentos apreendidos (seized documents). As a noun, the term can refer to the person who has been apprehended, typically written as o apreendido (masculine) or a apreendida (feminine) in contexts that preserve gender agreement. In everyday language, more common terms for a person include preso or detido, but apreendido appears in formal or bureaucratic texts.

Legal context and regional variation: The term is widely used in Brazilian and European Portuguese, particularly in police reports, judicial decisions, and administrative inventories. It is distinct from apreensão, the noun for the act of seizure, and from aprender (to learn), which is a different verb.

See also: Apreensão, Apreender, Apreendedor (related terms in the same verb family).