adorar

Forms

adorar (first-person singular present adoro, first-person singular preterite adorei, past participle adorado)^[1] Beside the learned adorar the 13th century had the popular aorar, and the 14th oorar.^[2][3] The spelling adourar is recorded from 1570.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin adōrō (“to plead with, address; to pray to, worship”), a learned word taken through the language of the Church.^{[5][6][1][2][7]} The Latin verb is formed from ad- and ōrō (“to plead, pray”).^[8][1] De Vaan takes the simple verb to be a verb made from ōs (“mouth”), with “to plead, speak openly” as its first meaning.^[9]

The popular outcome of the Latin verb was Old Galician-Portuguese aorar, with the /d/ between vowels lost.^[5][3][1] Machado says the learned form displaced it under the Church's influence.^[5][3][1] The same popular form is the Old Spanish aorar, the Old Catalan aorar and the Old French aorer.^[10][11] Spanish adorar and French adorer are learned like the Portuguese verb, and Italian adorare keeps the Latin form.^[11][12][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria have the learned form, do ydolo que adorasse “of the idol he should worship”, beside the popular one, a que aoramos “whom we worship”, and aorando-a muito chorando “worshipping her, weeping much” of an image of the Virgin.^[3] The sense is religious: to worship God, a saint or an idol.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana of the 14th century uses it of pagan worship, adorauan aly todos a uenus a deosa do mar “all worshipped Venus, the sea goddess, there”, and also has oorou-os.^[3] The early dictionaries give only the religious sense: Cardoso translates it with the Latin adoro, and Barbosa adds colo and veneror.^[13][14] Morais (1789) adds “to honour, respect greatly” of any worldly object.^[15] Cunha's article already includes “to love extremely”, and the DLP and Michaelis record the informal “to like very much”.^[7][16][17] Nheengatu borrowed the verb as adurari.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – adorasse and aorar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2][7]
• 14th century – oorou and adorauan in the Crónica Troiana.^[3][2]
• c. 1430 – adorar in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary.^[13]
• 1570 – the spelling adourar.^[2]
• 1577 – adoura in a private letter.^[19]
• 1789 – Morais records the extended sense “to respect greatly”.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To worship, to give religious worship to a deity: Os antigos adoravam o sol.^[2][20][1]
2. To revere, to venerate.^[2][20]
3. To love intensely, to idolize: Ela adora os netos.^[2][20][1]
4. (informal) To like very much: Adoro praia.^[16][17][1]
5. adorar-se: to love each other deeply.^[2][21]

Word family

• adoração
• adorado
• adorador
• adorável

Related words

• orar
• Latin adōrō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. adorar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. adorar
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, 168
5. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. adorar
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. adorar
7. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. adorar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. adōrō
9. ^ 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. ōrō
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 191
11. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. adorare
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. adorer
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. adorar
14. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. adorar
15. ^ 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, 29
16. ^ 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. adorar
17. ^ a b 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. adorar
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. adorar
19. ^ 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. adorar
20. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. adorar
21. ^ 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. adorar