abraçar

Forms

abraçar (first-person singular present abraço, first-person singular preterite abracei, past participle abraçado)^[1] Houaiss records the medieval variants abarçar (14th century), ablaçar and abracar (15th century).^[2][3] Aurélio notes abracar as a popular form in Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Mato Grosso.^[4]

Etymology

It is probably formed from Portuguese a- + braço + -ar, as Houaiss has it, and Aurélio and Michaelis give the same analysis.^[2][5][6] Others take it from a Vulgar Latin verb *abbracchiō, and Machado leaves both possible.^[2][3][7][8] Wiktionary takes it as inherited, through Old Galician-Portuguese abraçar, from *adbracchiō, formed from ad- and bracchium (“arm”).^[1]

The Latin word for “arm” is itself borrowed from Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhī́ōn).^[1]

The verb has close parallels in Galician abrazar, Spanish abrazar, Catalan abraçar, Occitan abraçar, Italian abbracciare and Sardinian abbratzare.^[1] Corominas dates the Spanish verb to about 1140 and treats it under brazo.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin law text of 1255 already has the participle with a Latin ending, Et sit ateygatum et nom abrazatum.^[3] The first Galician-Portuguese records are in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: a mother seu fillo... tĩia abraçado “held her son embraced”, and another cantiga has the infinitive as a noun, con muitas saudes e muitos abraçares “with many greetings and many embraces”.^[10] The Crónica Troiana has lançoulle os braços a colo et começou de o abraçar “she threw her arms round his neck and began to embrace him”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “to take up, adopt” is already in the 14th-century Portuguese Regra de S. Bento: as requezas nõ abraçar “not to embrace riches”.^[3] Morais (1789) records the senses “to encircle, contain”, as of a city or a river, “to take charge of” a business and “to follow” an opinion or party.^[11] Today the verb also means to take in with the eyes and to devote oneself to a cause, and sailors use it for passing a rope round something.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1255 – the participle abrazatum in a Latin law text.^[3]
• 13th century – abraçado and the noun abraçares in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[10]
• 14th century – as requezas nõ abraçar in the Regra de S. Bento; the variant abarçar.^[3][2]
• c. 1430 – abraçar in the Horto do Esposo.^[12]
• 15th century – first record of the noun abraço.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders it with Latin amplector.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as taking someone in one's arms.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais adds “to encircle”, “to take charge of” and “to follow”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hug, embrace;^[2][5][1] (reflexive) to hug each other: Os dois irmãos abraçaram-se à chegada.^[2][5][1]
2. (reflexive) To cling to; to twine round: A hera abraça-se ao tronco.^[2][16]
3. (figurative) To surround, encircle.^[2][7]
4. (figurative) To take in with the eyes; to encompass.^[2][7]
5. (figurative) To adopt, take up (a belief, an idea): abraçar uma nova fé.^[2][5]
6. (figurative) To devote oneself to (a cause, a profession).^[2][7]
7. (figurative) To take as one's own (a child).^[2]
8. (nautical) To pass a rope round something.^[2]

Word family

• abraço

Related words

• braço
• braçadeira
• Latin bracchium
• Spanish abrazar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. abraçar
3. ^ a b c d e f Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. abraçar
4. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 34
5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. abraçar
6. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. abraçar
7. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. abraçar
8. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. abraçar
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. brazo
10. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. abraçar
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 8
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. abraçar
13. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. abraço
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. abraçar
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. abraçar
16. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. abraçar