alcançar

Forms

alcançar (first-person singular present alcanço, first-person singular preterite alcancei, past participle alcançado)^[1] Houaiss records the 14th-century spellings alcançar, alcãçar, alcalçar and allcamçar.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *incalciō (“to tread on someone's heels, pursue closely”), a verb formed from Latin calx (“heel”).^[2][3][4][1] The usual account, given by Houaiss, Cunha and Nascentes, is that the old verbs Old Galician-Portuguese encalçar and Old Galician-Portuguese acalçar (the latter with a change of prefix) crossed to give *ancalçar, which became the modern verb by metathesis of the /l/.^[2][3][4] Corominas rejects this, because the prefix an- is very rare and the crossed form is never recorded; he starts instead from the recorded Old Galician-Portuguese alcalçar, a variant of the verb in a-, with dissimilation of the first /l/.^[5][2] The glossary of the Crónica Geral adds that the Arabic article al- may have played a part, as Carolina Michaëlis thought, but that the mutual influence of the two older verbs is undeniable.^[6] Wiktionary derives the Portuguese verb from Old Spanish alcalçar.^[1]

The older verb in a-, meaning “to catch up with”, is recorded from 1188–1230 and is common in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[7][6] The Latin verb also survives in Italian incalzare and Catalan encalçar “to pursue”, and the same development produced Spanish alcanzar, recorded from 1135.^[5][8] De Vaan finds the proposed Balto-Slavic cognates of the Latin word for “heel” doubtful, and a non-Indo-European origin has also been suggested.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates the verb to the 13th century and Houaiss to the 14th, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[3][2] In the Galician Crónica Troiana it means both “to reach, strike” (Hector is struck above the shield, alcançoo por çima do almofar) and “to attain” an honour.^[10] In the same period the older form acalçar was used for catching up with someone: in the Cantigas de Santa Maria a falcon toste a acalçou “soon caught it”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From “to catch up with someone ahead” the verb came to mean “to obtain, acquire”: a notarial document of Noia of 1445 speaks of the goods the writer has and ouuer et alcançar “will have and acquire”.^[10] Cardoso (1569) translates it with Latin consequor and impetro, “to obtain”, and Barbosa (1611) gives alcançar com rogos “to obtain by entreaty”.^[11][12] Morais adds “to reach with the hand”, “to understand something lofty or difficult” and alcançar-se, of a horse striking its own legs with its hooves.^[13] Houaiss has the veterinary sense in Brazil, for an animal that injures itself in this way (alcançadura).^[2]

Timeline

• 1188–1230 – first record of the older verb acalçar.^[7]
• 1200s – Cunha's first date for alcançar.^[3]
• 1300s – the spellings alcançar, alcãçar and alcalçar.^[2]
• 1445 – “to acquire” in a notarial document of Noia.^[10]
• 1513 – alcançar in the Livro dos Mártires.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it as consequor “to obtain”.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau reports that João Lopes de Velasco derived the verb from Latin calx “heel”, “to follow someone close behind”.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To catch up with someone or something that was ahead: Correu e alcançou o autocarro.^[2][16][1]
2. To reach something with the hand or with an object.^[2][13]
3. To fall upon, strike or affect someone: A crise alcançou muitas famílias.^[2]
4. (figurative) To grasp, understand: Não alcanço o que ele quer dizer.^[2][13]
5. To take in with the eyes, to see as far as.^[2]
6. To amount to, come to a number or quantity.^[2]
7. To live at the time of something, to witness it.^[2]
8. To achieve, obtain, attain: alcançar um objetivo.^[2][11][1]
9. (veterinary, Brazil) Of a horse, to injure itself by striking one leg with the hoof of another.^[2][13]

Word family

• alcance
• alcançadura

Related words

• encalço
• coice
• calcanhar
• Latin calx
• Spanish alcanzar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. alcançar
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. alcançar
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. alcançar
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 130
6. ^ 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. acalçar
7. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. acalçar
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alcanzar
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. alcançar
11. ^ a b c Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. alcançar
12. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. alcançar
13. ^ a b c d 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, 51
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. alcançar
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. alcançar
16. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. alcançar