agradecer

Forms

agradecer (first-person singular present agradeço, first-person singular preterite agradeci, past participle agradecido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had gradecer (gradesco, gradeci) and gradescer; the forms agardeçer (14th century), agradescer and guardecer (15th century) follow.^[2][3] Vieira (1871–1874) notes that agardecer and aguardecer were still used in popular speech.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese a- + grado + -ecer.^{[3][1][5][6][7]} Its middle part, the noun meaning “liking, will”, is from Latin grātus (“pleasing; grateful”).^[3]

Cunha derives it from the older Old Galician-Portuguese gradescer, which he finds in the 13th century, an inchoative of a verb *gradir from Vulgar Latin *grātiō.^[8] Machado and Nascentes call it an inchoative of agradar.^[9][10] Nascentes reports that Nunes took it from Vulgar Latin *grātēscō.^[9][10]

The Spanish verb agradecer is recorded from 1495, and earlier gradir and gradecer from about 1140.^[11] That noun corresponds to Spanish grado and French gré.^[11][12] The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *gʷrātos and Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“to welcome, greet, praise”), and is related to Sanskrit गूर्त (gūrtá, “pleasing, welcome”).^[1][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 13th century.^[3] The cantigas of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and the cantigas d'amigo use gradecer, with the forms gradesco and gradeci, for “to thank someone for something”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Machado quotes agardeço “I thank” from a 15th-century text, and notes that this form was still literary in the 16th century: Camões writes me agardece in Os Lusíadas (IV, 81); he adds that it is now popular.^[9] The Crónica Troiana uses gradesçer for thanking someone for a promise.^[14]

Cardoso (1569) glosses it as Latin agere gratias, and Bluteau (1712–1728) as “to give thanks”.^[15][16] Feijó (1734) sets the spelling Agradecer against Agardecer.^[17] Morais (1789) defines it as acknowledging and showing gratitude for a good deed received.^[18]

Michaelis records a figurative use for crops that thrive after they are fertilised.^[7] The DLP notes its use in polite requests.^[5]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record; the cantigas have gradecer.^[3][2]
• 14th century – the form agardeçer.^[3]
• 15th century – agradescer and guardecer.^[3]
• 1541 – agardeçerei in a private letter.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it as Latin agere gratias.^[15]
• 1734 – Feijó prefers Agradecer to Agardecer.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as showing gratitude for a good deed.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. To thank; to show or express gratitude (gratidão) to someone for something: Agradeci à vizinha a ajuda.^[3][6][5][1]
2. To be grateful for something.^[6][1]
3. To repay, reward in kind.^[3]
4. (figurative) Of a crop, to thrive after being tended or fertilised.^[7]
5. Used in polite requests: Agradecia que fechasse a porta.^[5]

Word family

• agradecimento
• agradecido

Related words

• grado
• agradar
• grato
• Spanish agradecer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. gradecer
3. ^ 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. agradecer
4. ^ 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, 234
5. ^ a b c d 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. agradecer
6. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. agradecer
7. ^ a b c 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. agradecer
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. grato
9. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. agradecer
10. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 12
11. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grado
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. gré
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. grātus
14. ^ 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. gradesçer
15. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. agradecer
16. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. agradecer
17. ^ 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. agradecer
18. ^ 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, 42
19. ^ 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. agradecer