afrontar

Forms

afrontar (first-person singular present afronto, first-person singular preterite afrontei, past participle afrontado)^[1] Houaiss records the 13th-century spellings afrontar, afrrontar and frontar, and afromtar in the 15th century.^[2] Vieira (1871–1874) preferred the spelling affrontar.^[3]

Etymology

Houaiss takes it as probably formed from Portuguese a- + fronte + -ar, from the noun for “forehead”;^[2][4][5][6] Aurélio, Porto Editora and Silva Bastos give the same analysis.^[2][4][5][6] The REW, the DLP and Wiktionary trace it instead to Vulgar Latin *affrontō (“to face, to defy”), built on Latin ad (“to”) and frons (“forehead, front”).^[7][8][1] Medieval Latin had affrontō in the sense “to border on”.^[9] The noun fronte itself comes from the Latin word.^[10]

The verb has the same form in Galician afrontar, Catalan afrontar and Old Spanish, and corresponds to French affronter and Italian affrontare.^[7][11] Beside Spanish afrontar there is afrentar;^[11][2] García de Diego attributes the ⟨e⟩ of the second to the noun afrenta, and Houaiss reports Corominas's view that the two were at first variants of one verb, with no difference of meaning.^[11][2]

The Latin noun has no plausible etymology, according to de Vaan.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's first record is a cantiga of Pai Soares de Taveirós in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda, log' ante vós m' afrontaran “they would have confronted me before you at once”, where the glossary of the cancioneiro explains the verb as “to bring face to face; to say something straight to someone's face”.^[13][14] In a cantiga of escarnho Johan Baveca writes Senher, vós non mi afrontedes assi “Lord, do not harass me so”.^[15][14] Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use the verb for facing an enemy and attacking him (the Crónica Troiana has two armies that afrontaronsse moy bravament “attacked each other very fiercely”), for harassing or pressing someone, and for putting someone in difficulty.^[14] The derived noun afronta shows the same spread in the 14th century: “attack, fight”, “danger, distress” and “offence, insult”.^[10][16]

By the 16th century the sense “to insult” was the usual one: Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders it with Latin convitior “to revile”, and Barbosa (1611) explains it as injuriar.^[17][18] A physical sense, “to exhaust, to oppress with heat or fatigue”, is attested from the medieval noun afrontamento, which also meant the discomfort of bad digestion, and lives on in the verb: the old Caldas Aulete defines it as causing distress through heat or tiredness, and Houaiss records it also for a face reddened by the sun.^[19][20][2] Galician dialect material has the verb for food that lies heavy on the stomach.^[14]

In Brazil it is also said of a horse that becomes exhausted and short of breath.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – afrontar in the cantigas of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and of escarnho.^[13][14][2]
• 1344 – first record of the noun afrontamento.^[19]
• 14th century – first record of the noun afronta.^[16][10]
• 1562 – desafrontar “to avenge an insult” is listed in Cardoso's dictionary.^[21]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses afrontar with Latin verbs for reviling and dishonouring.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa explains it as “to injure, insult”.^[18]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira enters the word under the spelling affrontar.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To face or confront head-on; to attack from the front; to brave (an enemy, death, a danger): Os soldados afrontaram a tempestade sem recuar.^[2][4][8][1]
2. To bring face to face; to confront (one person with another); (reflexive) to come face to face with someone.^[2][5]
3. To stand opposite, to face (a building, a street).^[2][4]
4. To insult, to affront; to offend someone openly.^{[2][22][5][1]}
5. To bring discredit or dishonour on.^[2][20][8]
6. To tire or oppress physically; to cause malaise (heat, a heavy meal); to make (the face) flush.^[2][5][23]
7. To rival or surpass;^[2] (reflexive) to bear comparison with.^[2]
8. (reflexive, formal) To dare, to presume.^[2]
9. (Brazil, reflexive) Of a horse: to become exhausted and short of breath.^[2]

Word family

• afronta
• afrontamento
• afrontoso
• desafrontar

Related words

• fronte
• defrontar
• Latin frons
• Spanish afrontar
• Spanish afrentar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. afrontar
3. ^ a b 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, 212
4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. afrontar
5. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 320
6. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. afrontar
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 267
8. ^ a b c 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. afrontar
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. affrontare
10. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fronte
11. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *affrontare
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. afrontar
14. ^ a b c d e 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. afrontar
15. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. afrontar
16. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. afronta
17. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. afrontar
18. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. afrontar
19. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. afrontamento
20. ^ a b 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. afrontar
21. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. desafrontar
22. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. afrontar
23. ^ 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. afrontar