abrir

Forms

abrir (first-person singular present abro, first-person singular preterite abri, past participle aberto)^[1] Houaiss records abryr in the 14th century and abriir in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin aperiō (“to open”), Old Galician-Portuguese abrir in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Vieira explains the form by the regular change of Latin /p/ to /b/ between vowels, as in cabelo from capillus and receber from recipiō, and by the loss of the unstressed /e/.^[5]

The same Latin word is Galician abrir, Asturian abrir, Spanish abrir and Italian aprire.^[6][1] French ouvrir and Catalan obrir go back to an altered form Vulgar Latin *operiō, whose /o/ the REW puts down to cooperiō (“to cover over”).^[1][7][6]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Italic *ap-wer-je- (“to open”), with the root of Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer- (“to cover”).^[8] Wiktionary analyses it as *h₂epó (“off, away”), the source of ab, with that root and a present suffix.^[1] The OLD compares Oscan veru (“door”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's first record is in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: hũa naue […] pelo fondo s'abriu “a ship … split open at the bottom”.^[4][10] Houaiss dates the verb to the 13th century from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The Crónica Troiana uses it of gates that the besieged closed “with no hope of opening them again”, and of ships broken open in a storm.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the cantigas d'escarnho abrir as mãos means “to let go, release”.^[10][11] Barbosa in 1611 renders the verb by Latin aperio, detego, patefacio and pando, which cover opening, uncovering and spreading out.^[12] Bluteau's book of synonyms gives desencerrar, desaferrolhar, desentupir and desenrolar.^[13] The older Aulete quotes Camões for the sense “to cut a way through”: Assim fomos abrindo aqueles mares “So we went on opening those seas”.^[14]

Figurative and later senses are “to begin, inaugurate”, “to reveal” and, reflexively, “to confide, open one's heart”.^[2][15] In the Bairrada region of Portugal a wine that lets the light through is said to abrir.^[15] In card games such as poker the verb means “to deal (a card)”.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – pelo fondo s'abriu in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, the century to which Cunha dates the first record.^[4][3]
• 14th century – the spelling abryr, and the derivative abrimento.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – first in the CTA corpus, in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it by Latin aperio and resero.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists aperio, detego, patefacio and pando.^[12]
• 1871 – Vieira explains the change of Latin /p/ to /b/.^[5]
• 1873 – first record of entreabrir.^[3]
• 1881 – first record of reabrir.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To open (a door, window or gate), moving aside what closes it: Abre a janela, por favor.^[2][18][1]
2. To open, part (the eyes, the mouth, the hand).^[2][18]
3. To open (a container, a parcel, a letter), uncovering what is inside.^[19][20]
4. To unfold, spread out: abrir o guarda-chuva.^[20]
5. To make (an opening); to dig (a hole, a well); to cut (a path).^[14][20]
6. To clear, unblock (a passage).^[20]
7. To begin, inaugurate (a shop, a session, an account).^[2][15]
8. (intransitive) To come open;^[15] (of a flower) to bloom.^[15]
9. abrir-se: to confide, open one's heart.^[15]
10. (card games, poker) To deal (a card).^[1]

Word family

• aberto
• abridor
• abrideira
• abrimento
• entreabrir
• reabrir

Related words

• abertura
• Latin aperiō
• Spanish abrir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. abrir
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. abrir
4. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. abrir
5. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 36
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 515
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ouvrir
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. aperiō
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. abrir
11. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. abrir
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. abrir
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. abrir
14. ^ a b 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. abrir
15. ^ a b c d e f Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. abrir
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. abrir
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. abrir
18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. abrir
19. ^ 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. abrir
20. ^ a b c d 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. abrir