adornar

Forms

adornar (first-person singular present adorno, first-person singular preterite adornei, past participle adornado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin adornō (“to prepare, equip; to adorn”), a learned word.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin verb is formed from ad- and ornō (“to furnish, equip”), and its first sense was “to get ready, prepare”.^[5][1]

The same Latin verb gave Italian adornare and the popular Old French aorner and Old Occitan azornar.^[6] Machado observes that, unlike the French verb, which was not in steady use, the Portuguese one can be documented in every century from the 16th.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha's addenda date the verb to the 15th century, in a text he cites as Esop, and Houaiss also gives the 15th century.^[7][2] Machado's first quotation is from the Lusíadas: the fleet decked itself with flags, E de todos alegres se adornou “and adorned itself with them all, joyful”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) uses the verb in a “natural and moral sense”: to decorate oneself before the mirror, and to adorn a fraud with words, after Pliny.^[8] Morais (1789) gives this poetic sense as “to disguise a fraud with circumstances”, and Priberam still records “to disguise”.^[9][10] Modern dictionaries have the figurative “to enrich”, of a speech, a style or the mind.^[2][11][12] In the Azores the verb means “to bend wood”, and a Portuguese survey of 1970 records it as “to make curved”.^[1][13] Cunha dates the noun adorno to the 17th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 15th century – first record, according to Cunha's addenda and Houaiss.^[7][2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin exorno.^[14]
• 16th century – the Lusíadas use the reflexive se adornou.^[3]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists adornada cousa “an adorned thing”.^[15]
• 17th century – first record of the noun adorno.^[7]
• 1789 – Morais records the poetic adornar fraude.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and pronominal) To adorn or decorate; to put ornaments on; to dress up: Adornaram a igreja com lírios brancos.^[2][11][1]
2. (figurative) To make attractive or interesting; to enrich with knowledge or qualities: adornar a prosa com imagens.^[2][11][12]
3. (figurative) To disguise.^[10]
4. (Azores, carpentry) To bend wood.^[1]

Word family

• adorno
• desadornar

Related words

• ornar
• ornamento
• Italian adornare

Usage notes

Houaiss, Aulete and Figueiredo enter a separate, obsolete nautical verb adornar of Portugal, “to heel over”, the same as adernar.^[2][12][16] Houaiss calls it of obscure origin, compares adernar and dates it to 1597 (adornada).^[2] Morais (1789) already refers this use to adernar.^[9]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. adornar
3. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. adornar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. adornar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. adornō
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. adornare
7. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. adornar
8. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. adornar
9. ^ a b c 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
10. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. adornar
11. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. adornar
12. ^ a b c 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. adornar
13. ^ 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. adornar
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. adornar
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. adornar
16. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 30