aceitar

Forms

aceitar (first-person singular present aceito, first-person singular preterite aceitei, past participle aceitado, short past participle (Brazil) aceito or (Portugal) aceite)^[1] The medieval language wrote aceptar (the past participle aceptado in 1325); aceitar appears in the 15th century beside aceptar and açeutar.^[2][3] The dictionaries of the 19th and early 20th century write acceitar, which Vieira, Silva Bastos and Figueiredo give as the main form.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin acceptō (“to receive regularly; to accept”), the frequentative of accipiō (“to take, receive”).^[2][3][7][1] The oldest texts write Old Galician-Portuguese aceptar, with the past participle Old Galician-Portuguese aceptado in 1325, and the form with ⟨it⟩ appears in the 15th century beside Old Galician-Portuguese açeutar.^[2] Machado holds that the spelling with ⟨pt⟩ was only a Latinising one, while Nascentes thinks the verb came by a semi-learned route.^[3][7] The short past participles aceito (Brazil) and aceite (Portugal) come directly from acceptus, the participle of the Latin base verb.^[1]

The learned Spanish aceptar is recorded from 1279, beside an old and dialectal Old Spanish acetar;^[8][9] García de Diego also records the popular form in Asturian and Galician.^[8][9] Italian accettare and French accepter come from the same Latin verb.^[10] The Latin verb is made of ad- (“to, towards”) and capiō (“to take”), which goes back to *kapjō.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado quotes a document of 1352: que todo aquelo que hy fosse aceptado contra o dicto scanbho “that all that might be accepted there against the said exchange”.^[3] Houaiss dates the past participle aceptado to 1325 and the verb to 1352, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The sense is “to receive, agree to something that is offered”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From “to receive what is offered”, the verb came to mean “to agree to, approve” and “to put up with”: Bluteau (1712–1728) has aceitar hum cargo “to accept a post”, aceitar o castigo “to submit to the punishment” and aceitar huma condição “to accept a condition”.^[11] Folqman (1755) adds aceitar batalha “to accept battle” and the commercial aceitar huma letra de cambio “to accept a bill of exchange”, that is, to bind oneself in writing on the bill to pay it.^[12][13]

Houaiss records the later senses “to take as true”, “to adopt a doctrine” and “to accept someone as a friend or in a post”, and the legal sense of formally agreeing to the terms of a contract.^[2] The original Caldas Aulete has aceitar por honra da firma “to agree against one's will”.^[13]

Timeline

• 1325 – the past participle aceptado.^[2]
• 1352 – fosse aceptado in a document quoted by Machado.^[3]
• 15th century – the spellings aceitar, aceptar and açeutar.^[2]
• 1416–1422 – açeptar “to accept, take on a charge” in the minutes of the town council of Santiago de Compostela.^[14]
• 1538 – aceytey “I accepted” in a private letter.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary translates aceitar as Latin accipio.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau lists aceitar hum cargo and aceitar huma condição.^[11]
• 1755 – Folqman records aceitar huma letra de cambio.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To accept, agree to receive (something given or offered): Aceitou o convite para o jantar.^[2][17][1]
2. To agree with, approve of (a proposal, an idea).^[2][17]
3. To resign oneself to, put up with (a fact or condition).^[2][18]
4. To take (criticism, news) in a certain way, well or badly.^[2]
5. To take upon oneself, assume (a responsibility, a charge).^[2][17]
6. To take as true or valid, to believe.^[2][19]
7. To adopt, embrace (a doctrine, a creed).^[2]
8. To accept (someone) as a friend or into a post, a group or an institution.^[2][19]
9. (law, commerce) To bind oneself to pay (a bill of exchange) on maturity by signing it.^[2][20][18]

Word family

• aceitação
• aceitável
• inaceitável
• aceite
• aceitante

Related words

• Latin acceptō
• Spanish aceptar

Usage notes

The verb has a regular past participle aceitado and the short forms aceito, usual in Brazil, and aceite, usual in Portugal.^[1][21]

Machado records a separate aceitar “to spy on, pursue”, which he would rather spell asseitar.^[3] In Barroso, in northern Portugal, a dialect verb aceitar means to break the ground with the old wooden plough called ceita.^[22]

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 o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. aceitar
3. ^ a b c d e f g Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. aceitar
4. ^ 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, 86
5. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. aceitar
6. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 16
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. aceitar
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 33
9. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. acceptare
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 5
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aceitar
12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aceitar
13. ^ 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. aceitar
14. ^ 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. açeptar
15. ^ 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. aceitar
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aceitar
17. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. aceitar
18. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 157
19. ^ a b 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. aceitar
20. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. aceitar
21. ^ 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. aceitar
22. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. aceitar