agitar

Forms

agitar (first-person singular present agito, first-person singular preterite agitei, past participle agitado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin agitō (“to set in motion, drive; to stir, disturb”).^[2][3][4][1] Machado notes that the -t- kept between vowels shows a learned word, as in the other Portuguese words of this root and in most of its Romance relatives.^[4] Nascentes also calls it learned.^[5]

The Latin verb is the frequentative of agō (“to drive, do”), formed with the suffix -itō.^[6][1][7] The same Latin word was borrowed as Spanish agitar, French agiter and Italian agitare.^[4][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's first record, of the 16th century, is from the sermons of Father Francisco de Mendonça: the sea, once it lost the sweetness of the Jordan, of the fresh currents that stirred and sweetened its salt waters (lhe agitavão e adoçavão as suas salgadas), lost its old name and took that of the Dead Sea.^[4][10] Cunha also dates the verb to the 16th century;^[3][2] Houaiss gives 1624.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Feijó (1734) glosses the verb as “to move” and “to bring a matter into controversy, to dispute”.^[11] Morais (1789) gives “to set in motion” and “to raise (a question)”, and for the reflexive the waves, the heart, a bird, the mind or the people that stir and grow restless.^[12] In 1813 he adds the people rising together in a riot.^[13] The political sense “to stir up to revolt” is in Silva Bastos (1912) and the modern dictionaries.^[14][2]

Timeline

• 16th century – first record, in Francisco de Mendonça's sermons.^[4][3]
• 16th century – agitação and agitador.^[3]
• 1624 – Houaiss's first date for the verb.^[2]
• 17th century – agitável.^[3]
• 1734 – Feijó gives “to dispute a matter”.^[11]
• 1783 – agitado in a private letter.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais records the verb and its reflexive.^[12]
• 1871 – Vieira derives it from Latin and quotes Mendonça.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shake; to move to and fro; to wave: agitar a garrafa antes de abrir.^[2][16][1]
2. To trouble, make restless;^[2][17] (pronominal) to become restless: O menino agitava-se na cama.^[2][17]
3. To debate a question vigorously.^[2][17]
4. To raise, bring up (a question or a theme).^[2][17]
5. To move strongly, excite.^[2][17]
6. To stir up, incite to revolt.^[2][18]
7. (pronominal) To move about, toss.^[18][16]

Word family

• agitador
• agitante
• agitável

Related words

• agitação
• agir
• Latin agitō

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. agitar
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. agitar
4. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. agitar
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. agitar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. agitō
7. ^ 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. agitar
8. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. agitar
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. agiter
10. ^ 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, 228
11. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. agitar
12. ^ 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, 41
13. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 65
14. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. agitar
15. ^ 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. agitar
16. ^ 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. agitar
17. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. agitar
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. agitar