aludir

Forms

aludir (first-person singular present aludo, first-person singular preterite aludi, past participle aludido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin allūdō (“to play or sport with; to jest; to allude”), a learned word, spelt ⟨alludir⟩ until the 19th century.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from ad- and lūdō (“to play”).^[5][1] Nascentes explains the sense from “to mock” to “to mention indirectly”, but Houaiss gives the Latin verb the sense “to allude” already.^[6][2]

The Latin verb goes with lūdus (“play, game”), written ⟨loed-⟩ and ⟨loid-⟩ in archaic inscriptions.^[7] Wiktionary reports de Vaan's suggestion of a Proto-Italic *loidō, perhaps from the root Proto-Indo-European *leyd- (“to let go”), and calls the origin uncertain.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to 1563.^[2] Machado quotes it from Heitor Pinto's Diálogos in the 16th century: A isto alludia S. Jerónimo, quando escrevendo a Heliodoro, dizia… “St Jerome alluded to this when, writing to Heliodorus, he said…”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed that of a brief or indirect mention.^[2][8] Cunha's first record of the spelling with one l is from 1844, but a private letter of 1822 already writes aludir;^{[3][9][10][11]} Vieira in 1871 and Figueiredo in 1899 still head the word alludir.^{[3][9][10][11]} The original Caldas Aulete called the transitive use incorrect, and Aurélio notes that the verb does not take the pronoun lhe, only a ele.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1563 – first record, according to Houaiss.^[2]
• 16th century – alludia in Heitor Pinto's Diálogos.^[4]
• 1822 – a private letter spells it aludir.^[9]
• 1844 – Cunha's first record of aludir with one l.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira refers aludir to alludir.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, with a) To refer briefly or indirectly to something; to allude: O relatório nem aludiu à greve.^{[2][8][13][14][1]}
2. (transitive, rare) To mention something to someone.^[13]

Related words

• alusão
• alusivo
• Latin lūdus

Usage notes

As Aurélio notes, the object is always introduced by a, and a pronoun takes the form a ele, a ela, never lhe: aludiu a ele.^[13][12]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. aludir
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. aludir
4. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. aludir
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. allūdō
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. aludir
7. ^ 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. lūdō
8. ^ a b 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. aludir
9. ^ a b c 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. aludir
10. ^ 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, 341
11. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. aludir
12. ^ 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. aludir
13. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. aludir
14. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 520