aconselhar

Forms

aconselhar (first-person singular present aconselho, first-person singular preterite aconselhei, past participle aconselhado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote aconssellar and aconsselhar.^[2][3] aconselhar and acomsselhar appear in the 15th century.^[2][3] Feijó (1734) warns against the spelling aconcelhar.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese a- + conselho + -ar, as Houaiss, Aurélio, the DLP and Priberam analyse it.^[2][5][6][7] Machado derives it from conselho, but allows that it may come straight from Latin cōnsilior (“to deliberate; to advise”).^[8] Wiktionary instead takes it from Old Galician-Portuguese conselhar, the verb without the prefix, which Machado also finds in the 13th century, in a cantiga of Alfonso X.^[1][8]

The noun itself is from cōnsilium (“council; deliberation; advice”).^[9] In Spanish, aconsejar is formed in the same way from consejo, and is recorded from about 1140.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's first record is a 13th-century cantiga by Pero da Ponte in the Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional: Ay! eu, que m’ aconsselh’ e desaconsselhado / fiqu’ eu sen vos “Alas, I who seek counsel, and am left without counsel, without you”.^[8] The glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda gives the sense “to give advice to someone”.^[12] Cunha dates aconssellar and aconsselhar to the 13th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb meant both giving counsel and, in the reflexive, taking it: Barbosa (1611) has aconselharse “to take counsel” and “to look to one's own interest”.^[13] Bluteau's book of synonyms adds “to warn” and “to admonish”.^[14] Modern Portuguese also uses it for recommending a thing rather than advising a person, as a doctor recommends a diet, and the reflexive for a group that confers before a decision.^[2][5] Cunha records the derivatives aconselhante (15th century), aconselhador (16th century), aconselhamento and aconselhável (20th century).^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – m’ aconsselh’ in a cantiga by Pero da Ponte.^[8][3]
• 15th century – the spellings aconselhar and acomsselhar.^[2]
• 1522 – a private letter writes acõselhar.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin consulo and suadeo.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa records the reflexive aconselharse “to take counsel”.^[13]
• 1734 – Feijó rejects the spelling aconcelhar.^[4]
• 1871 – Vieira explains the verb from Latin consilium with the prefix a-.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To advise, give counsel to someone: A tia aconselhou-a a não vender a casa.^[2][5][1]
2. To recommend, point out the advantage of something; to prescribe: O médico aconselhou repouso.^[2][5]
3. To try to persuade someone of the need for something.^[5][18][7]
4. To warn, admonish.^[19]
5. (reflexive) aconselhar-se: to seek advice, to consult someone: aconselhou-se com o advogado.^[2][7][20]
6. (reflexive) Of a group, to confer and debate in order to reach a decision.^[2]

Word family

• aconselhador
• aconselhamento
• aconselhável
• desaconselhar

Related words

• conselho
• conselheiro
• Spanish aconsejar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. aconselhar
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. conselho
4. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aconselhar
5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. aconselhar
6. ^ 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. aconselhar
7. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. aconselhar
8. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. aconselhar
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. conselho
10. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. aconsejar
11. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. consejo
12. ^ 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. aconselhar
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aconselhar
14. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aconselhar
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. aconselhar
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aconselhar
17. ^ 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, 112
18. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 21
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 199
20. ^ 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. aconselhar