perdre

Forms

perdre (first-person singular present perdo, first-person singular preterite perdí, past participle perdut)^[1] The oldest documents write the past participle perdud.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan perdre, which is inherited from Latin perdō (“to destroy; to lose”), from the infinitive ⟨perdere⟩.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin verb is Old Occitan perdre, French perdre, Spanish perder, Italian perdere and Romanian pierde.^[5][6]

Coromines, Bruguera and the GDLC derive the Latin verb from dō (“to give”) with per- “completely”, the first sense being “to give away entirely”.^[2][7][4] Wiktionary analyses it as the same prefix in the sense “through” with -dō (“to put”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines's first record is a 12th-century document from the upper Cardener valley, a complaint that someone carried off the pigs and oxen of a farm, so that it would be worth less for ever: e n'é perdud, “and I have lost by it”.^[2] A document of 1242 from the Conca de Tremp says a church à perdud 300 sacrifices, and one of about 1251 from the Seu d'Urgell tells of a man robbed who perdí tot quant portava, “lost all he carried”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use the verb for losing a possession, a limb or a faculty, and for losing friends through death: “whoever lives long loses his friends”, says Jafuda Bonsenyor in 1298.^[8] Eiximenis uses the infinitive as a noun, un perdre, “a loss”.^[8] The DCVB puts first the sense “to bring to ruin”, physical or moral, and the intransitive “to go to ruin”.^[3]

The derivatives are old: perdició (a learned word, in the Homilies d'Organyà), pèrdua in Desclot in the 13th century, perdiment in Llull, perdedor in Jaume Roig (1460).^[7] The modern dictionaries add the senses “to miss” a train or an opportunity and, as a reflexive verb, “to get lost”.^[4][1]

Timeline

• 1100s – perdud in a document from the upper Cardener valley.^[2][4]
• 1242 – à perdud in a document from the Conca de Tremp.^[2]
• c. 1251 – perdí tot quant portava in a document from the Seu d'Urgell.^[2]
• 1298 – Jafuda Bonsenyor's Sentències morals: pert sos amichs.^[8]
• 1425 – Ausiàs March: molt hom a perdut.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To lose, to stop having something through some mishap, or not know where it is.^[9][4][1]
2. (transitive) To lose a part of the body, a quality or a faculty: one's sight, patience or appetite.^[9][4]
3. (transitive) To fail to win a game, a lawsuit or a battle.^[4][3]
4. (transitive) To miss a train, a show or an opportunity; to waste time or effort.^[4][1]
5. (reflexive) To get lost, to stray from the way; to disappear.^[4][1]
6. (transitive) To ruin, to bring to perdition.^[3][4]

Word family

• pèrdua
• perdedor
• perdiment
• perdut
• perdudament
• perdible
• imperdible

Related words

• perdició
• Latin perdo
• Spanish perder
• French perdre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 445
3. ^ a b c d Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. perdre
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. perdre
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6403
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 488
7. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 699
8. ^ a b c d Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. perdre
9. ^ 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. perdre