agir

Forms

agir (first-person singular present ajo, first-person singular preterite agi, past participle agido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French agir, from Latin agō (“to drive, do”), according to Machado, Nascentes and Wiktionary.^[2][3][1] Houaiss, Cunha and the Academia's DLP derive it directly from the Latin verb, Vieira (1871) gives both, and the first edition of Aurélio (1975) had the French origin where the current one has the Latin.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} The French verb was itself taken from Latin in the 15th century.^[10]

The Latin verb was first a pastoral word, “to drive (cattle) before one”, and goes back to *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”), like ἄγω (ágō, “to lead”) and अजति (ájati, “drives”).^[11][1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado notes that the Academia's dictionary of 1793 and Morais's of 1813 do not yet list the verb, and finds it first in Ferreira Borges's Dicionário Jurídico-Comercial of 1839.^[2] Houaiss's date is for the legal sense, “to act as an agent, take legal action”.^[4] Vieira (1871) also enters it as a legal term, “to act as agent”, and quotes Ferreira Borges: “each person can act (agir) for himself”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the legal sense the verb spread to “to act, take steps” in general, “to behave, proceed” and, of a substance or a medicine, “to take effect, work”.^[4][6] Figueiredo (1899) still marked it as disused, and Silva Bastos (1912) as little used, but the original Caldas Aulete already called it a neologism common in both Brazil and Portugal.^[12][13][14]

Timeline

• 1839 – first record, in Ferreira Borges's legal and commercial dictionary.^[2][4]
• 1844 – first record of reagir.^[5]
• 1871 – Vieira enters agir as a legal term.^[7]
• 1899 – Figueiredo marks agir as disused.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To act, take steps, do something: É preciso agir já.^[4][15][1]
2. To take effect, work (on something): O medicamento agiu depressa.^[4][15]
3. To work, be active: Esses assaltantes agem de madrugada.^[4]
4. To behave, conduct oneself, proceed.^[4][1]
5. (law) To take legal action; to act as an agent for someone.^[4][6]

Word family

• reagir

Related words

• ação
• coagir
• reação
• Latin agō
• French agir

Usage notes

The verb was long opposed by purists: Rui Barbosa held that Portuguese had no need of it, having fazer, obrar, operar, atuar, proceder and portar-se for the same purpose.^[14][16] Its present subjunctive aja is easily confused with haja from haver.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. agir
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. agir
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. agir
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. agir
6. ^ 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. agir
7. ^ a b c 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, 227
8. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 74
9. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. agir
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. agir
11. ^ 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. ago
12. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. agir
13. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. agir
14. ^ 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. agir
15. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 335
16. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 11