percebre

Forms

percebre (first-person singular present percebo, first-person singular preterite percebí, past participle percebut); root stress: (Northern) /e̞/, (Balearic) /ə/, (Central) /ɛ/, (Northwestern, Valencia) /e/^[1] The DCVB records the pronunciations pəɾsέβɾə, peɾséβɾe and pəɾsə́βɾə.^[2] The variant percebir appears in Lacavalleria's dictionary and in a few 15th-century texts, among them Ausiàs March's percebesch.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin percipiō (“to seize; to receive; to perceive”).^[3][2][4][1]

The same Latin verb is Romanian pricepe, French percevoir, Occitan percebre, Spanish percibir and Portuguese perceber.^[5]

The Latin verb is formed per- + capiō (“to take”).^[6][1]

Coromines treats the verb in his article on concebre.^[3] Where popular development lost the consonant, as in rebre (older ⟨reebre⟩), decebre kept or restored a voiceless ⟨c⟩, which he attributes to the influence of the Latin verb and of its sister verbs, this one among them.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

CICA's oldest record is in Ramon Llull's Llibre de meravelles (1288–1289), in a copy of 1367.^[7] Llull uses the verb for knowing through the senses and through the understanding: sensible things are easy de percebre.^[8] Coromines, Bruguera and the GDLC date it instead from Lluís d'Averçó's Torcimany, about 1390.^[3][9][4]

Semantic evolution

The medieval verb meant to know, to understand, to grasp: Eiximenis and Bernat Metge use it in 1381.^[10] Llull also has the derivative apercebre, and percepció is recorded in Saint Vincent Ferrer, perceptible in the Torcimany.^[9][3]

The dictionaries of 1803 and 1839 marked percebre as antiquated and sent the reader to percibir or percebir.^[11][12] Pal·las in 1927 and Fabra in 1932 head percebre with the senses of receiving impressions through the senses and of receiving a sum that is due.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1288–1289 – first record in CICA, in Llull's Llibre de meravelles.^[7]
• 14th century – apercebre in Llull.^[9]
• 1381 – Bernat Metge writes in Lo somni that the soul of beasts no percep the nature of bodily things.^[10]
• c. 1390 – percebi and perceptible in Averçó's Torcimany.^[3]
• 1425 – Ausiàs March uses the verb.^[10]
• 1803 – Esteve, Bellvitges and Juglà mark percebre as antiquated.^[11]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary heads the word percebre.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To perceive, to receive impressions of something through the senses: Va percebre una olor estranya.^[15][4]
2. (transitive) To receive a sum that is due: percebre un sou.^[15][4]

Word family

• apercebre
• apercebiment
• desapercebut

Related words

• concebre
• percepció
• perceptible
• perceptiu
• perceptor
• perceptró
• rebre
• imperceptible
• Latin percipiō
• Spanish percibir

Usage notes

Coromines calls percibir an intolerable Castilianism for percebre.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. percebre
3. ^ a b c d e f g Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 867
4. ^ a b c d Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. percebre
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6399
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. percipiō
7. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. percebre
8. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. percebre
9. ^ a b c Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 698
10. ^ a b c Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. percebre
11. ^ a b Esteve, Joaquim; Bellvitges, Josep; Juglà, Antoni (1803–1805), Diccionario catalán-castellano-latino, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. percebre
12. ^ Una Societat de Catalans (1839), Diccionari catalá-castellá-llatí-frances-italiá, 2 vols., Barcelona: Joseph Torner, p. s.v. percebre
13. ^ Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. percebre
14. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. percebre
15. ^ a b Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. percebre
16. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 6, 442