afirmar

Forms

afirmar (first-person singular present afirmo, first-person singular preterite afirmei, past participle afirmado)^[1] Old texts write afirmar and affirmar (14th century) and afyrmar (15th).^[2] The etymological spelling affirmar lasted until the 20th-century reforms;^[3][1] Figueiredo (1899) enters afirmar as the same word as affirmar.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin affirmō (“to strengthen; to assert”), a learned word.^[2][4][5][1] Nascentes calls it semi-learned, and the glossary of the Crónica Geral a learned derivative.^[6][7] The Latin verb is formed from ad- and firmō (“to strengthen, make firm”), from the adjective firmus (“firm”).^[8][1][9]

The same Latin verb is Italian affermare, Old French afermer and Old Occitan afermar; in Spanish the inherited form was Old Spanish ahirmar, and Spanish afirmar is learned like the Portuguese word.^[10][11] The old form was remade in the 13th century as French affirmer.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to the 14th century, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] Machado quotes a 14th-century text: e quando el viu que lho afirmavam de verdade “and when he saw that they assured him of it as the truth”.^[5] The Crónica Troiana has it both for asserting (el afirmou que aynda auya de uijr tal sazon “he affirmed that a time would yet come”) and for confirming agreements.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Geral shows the range of the medieval verb: to confirm a law, to prove, to assure, to settle a pact firmly, and even to come to an end.^[7] Cunha dates the word to the 16th century, with both senses “to make firm” and “to state firmly”.^[4] Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) render it with Latin assevero and affirmo.^[12][13]

Vieira (1871–1874) records the physical sense “to fix, to steady” and the reflexive afirmar-se “to hold oneself firm”.^[14] The DLP now marks “to make firm” as obsolete.^[15] From the reflexive came “to assert oneself, to become established”, and the physical sense gave afirmar a vista “to fix one's gaze”; in northern Portugal afirmar-se means to look closely.^{[2][16][17][18]} Michaelis records a hunting sense: to train a dog to follow only one kind of game.^[19]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records, as afirmar and affirmar.^[2][5]
• 15th century – the spelling afyrmar.^[2]
• 1525 – afirmar in the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana.^[20]
• 1542 – affirmo in a private letter.^[21]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with assevero and affirmo.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds afirmadamente.^[13]
• 1874 – first record of reafirmar.^[22]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make firm; to consolidate, establish;^[2][16][1] (pronominal) to become established: Afirmou-se como a melhor da turma.^[2][16][1]
2. To state firmly; to assert, affirm, declare: Ela afirma que nunca esteve lá.^[2][16][1]
3. To confirm, attest; to vouch for the truth or existence of something.^[2][16][1]
4. (pronominal) To show oneself independent or adult; to assert one's own will or identity.^[2][17]
5. (pronominal) To make a name for oneself, to earn one's place.^[2][1]
6. To fix (the gaze); (pronominal) to look closely.^[16][17]
7. (hunting) To train (a dog) to follow only one kind of game.^[19]

Word family

• reafirmar
• afirmador
• afirmante

Related words

• afirmação
• afirmativa
• afirmativo
• confirmar
• firmar
• firme
• Latin affirmō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. afirmar
3. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 35
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. afirmar
5. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. afirmar
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. afirmar
7. ^ a b c 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. afirmar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. affirmo
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. affirmer
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 260a
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. afirmar
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. afirmar
14. ^ 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, 205
15. ^ 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. afirmar
16. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. afirmar
17. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 305
18. ^ 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. afirmar
19. ^ 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. afirmar
20. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. afirmar
21. ^ 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. afirmar
22. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. reafirmar