adivinhar

Forms

adivinhar (first-person singular present adivinho, first-person singular preterite adivinhei, past participle adivinhado)^[1] The cantigas write adeuinnar, adevĩnar, adeuinar, adeuinhar and adeuiar;^[2][3][4] Houaiss dates adevinhar to the 14th century and adivinhar to the 15th.^[2][3][4] Machado notes that Camões still used adevinhar beside adivinhar, the form that became general.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *addīvīnō, formed from dīvīnō (“to foretell, divine”) with the prefix ad-, according to Machado, Cunha and the DLP; it was written Old Galician-Portuguese adevinnar in the oldest texts.^{[2][5][6][7][1]} Houaiss gives the simple Latin verb, and the Academy's dictionary of 2001, which he quotes, says the prefix a- may go back to Vulgar Latin.^[3] Nascentes instead derives the verb from adivinho with -ar, since only that, in his view, explains the palatal ⟨nh⟩.^[8] Carolina Michaëlis compared the ⟨nh⟩ of aginha, minha and rainha.^[4]

Related forms are Galician adiviñar, Spanish adivinar, Catalan endevinar, Italian indovinare and French deviner.^[9][10][1] The Latin verb is from dīvīnus (“divine, inspired, prophetic”).^[11][1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado quotes 13th-century cantigas: Estêvão Coelho's Auuytor comestes, que adeuynhades “you have eaten vulture, since you divine”, and que punnan en adeuinnar “who strive to divine” in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda.^[2] Gil Perez Conde writes Sempr' en mia mort' adevinhei / que avia a morrer por vós “I always foresaw in my death that I would die for you”: the first sense was “to foresee, have a presentiment”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana has nunca adiuiñey cousa “I never foretold anything”.^[4] Camões writes Adiuinhar pirigos & euitallos “to foresee dangers and avoid them” in the Lusíadas (1572).^[2][12] Morais (1813) adds “to guess by signs” and “to solve (a riddle)”, and the back-formation adivinha “riddle” is recorded from the 15th century.^[13][5]

Today the everyday sense is “to guess”; the senses of prophecy by supernatural means remain beside it.^[3][14][1]

Timeline

• 1200s – adeuinnar, adeuynhades and adeuiar in the cantigas.^[2][3]
• 1300s – Houaiss's first adevinhar; the Crónica Troiana has adiuiñey.^[3][4]
• 1400s – Houaiss's first adivinhar;^[3][5] adivinha “riddle” is recorded.^[3][5]
• 1572 – Camões uses adiuinhar in the Lusíadas.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira gives Latin divino, praesagio and vaticinor.^[15]
• 1813 – Morais adds “to solve a riddle”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To divine; to discover or foretell by supernatural means: A cartomante adivinhou-lhe o passado.^[3][14][1]
2. To guess; to hit on by chance or supposition: Adivinha quem me telefonou!^[3][1]
3. To work out by intuition or from signs; to sense in advance.^[3][14]
4. To solve, decipher (a riddle or mystery).^[14][6]
5. To predict, foretell.^[14][1]
6. To read someone's thoughts or wishes before they are spoken.^[6]

Word family

• adivinha
• adivinhação
• adivinhador
• adivinhança
• adivinhão

Related words

• adivinho
• divino
• Galician adiviñar
• Spanish adivinar

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 Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. adivinhar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. adivinhar
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. adivinhar
5. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. adivinhar
6. ^ 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. adivinhar
7. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 251
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. adivinhar
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2704
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. addivinare
11. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 28
12. ^ 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, 156
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 42
14. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. adivinhar
15. ^ 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. adivinhar