acabar

Forms

acabar (first-person singular present acabo, first-person singular preterite acabei, past participle acabado)^[1] Houaiss records the spelling aquabar in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese a- + cabo + -ar, from the noun in the sense “end”, as Houaiss, Nascentes and the DLP explain it.^[2][3][4] For Machado it is instead inherited from Vulgar Latin *accapō (“to come to the end”), formed on Latin caput (“head”) and spread through the western Romance languages.^[2][5] Porto Editora gives both explanations, and Wiktionary the Vulgar Latin one.^[6][1]

The same verb is Spanish acabar, Catalan acabar, Occitan acabar and French achever.^[7][8] Corominas thinks it must be very old.^[7] The noun cabo continues the Latin word, which goes back to *kaput.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date it to the 13th century.^[2][9] Machado quotes a cantiga of King Denis: E ben o pod acabar, / Poys end o poder oer “and he can well achieve it, since he has the power”.^[5] In the cantigas it meant “to bring about, achieve” as well as “to finish”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The medieval sense “to obtain, achieve” is frequent in the cantigas and the Crónica Troiana.^[12][13] Houaiss marks “to manage, succeed in” as archaic, though Michaelis still lists “to obtain”.^[2][14] Pereira in 1697 gives the sense “to die”, and Morais in 1789 adds acabar de “to have just done” and acabar com “to destroy entirely”.^[15][16] The modern language uses it also for ending a relationship and, with a predicate, for “to end up”.^[2][6]

The verb passed into Kabuverdianu and Sranan Tongo as kaba and into Macanese as cavâ.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the cantigas.^[2][5]
• 15th century – the spelling aquabar.^[2]
• 1416 – acabar in the Vida de Santo Aleixo.^[17]
• 1503 – a private letter writes acabar.^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin perficio and absolvo.^[19]
• 1697 – Pereira gives the sense “to die”.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais records acabar de and acabar com.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To finish, bring to an end, complete: Ainda não acabei o relatório.^[2][20][1]
2. To come to an end; to have its limit somewhere: A rua acaba no rio.^[2][1]
3. To give the last touches to a work.^[2][14]
4. (with com) To put an end to; to destroy, kill; to ruin.^[2][14][1]
5. To end a relationship; to break up.^[2][20][1]
6. To end up as, turn out: acabou rico;^[2][6][1] (with em) to end in.^[2][6][1]
7. To run out, be used up.^[2][1]
8. To die.^[21][6]
9. (auxiliary, with de and an infinitive) To have just done;^[21][1] (with por) to end up doing.^[21][1]

Word family

• acabado
• acabamento
• acabador
• inacabado
• inacabável

Related words

• cabo
• Spanish acabar
• French achever

Usage notes

Um nunca acabar is a great quantity or something that goes on and on.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. acabar
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. acabar
4. ^ 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. acabar
5. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. acabar
6. ^ a b c d e f Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 124
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 714
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cabo
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. caput
11. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. acabar
12. ^ a b 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. acabar
13. ^ 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. acabar
14. ^ a b c 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. acabar
15. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. acabar
16. ^ 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, 11
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. acabar
18. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. acabar
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. acabar
20. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. acabar
21. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. acabar