amar

Forms

amar (first-person singular present amo, first-person singular preterite amei, past participle amado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin amō (“to love”), written Old Galician-Portuguese amar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician amar, Spanish amar, Catalan amar, Italian amare and French aimer.^[5][6] In Old French it was amer, and the modern French form took its vowel from the stressed forms of the present.^[7]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb from Proto-Italic *ama- (“to take, hold”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₃emh₃- (“to take hold of”), the root of Ancient Greek ὄμνυμι (ómnumi, “to swear”); the meaning would have gone from “take someone's hand” to “regard as a friend”.^[8] Wiktionary gives this origin only as a possibility.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb appears in the 13th-century cantigas with its present sense: the Cancioneiro da Ajuda has it for “to feel affection for someone” and, followed by an infinitive, “to like to, wish to” (amar a servir).^[9] The Cantigas de Santa Maria say Santa Maria amar devemos muit' “we must love Holy Mary much”.^[9] Machado's earliest record, of 1124, is in a Latin legal text.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) compares the verb with Latin amare and diligere and finds amare the more fitting, since diligere properly means to choose.^[10] The older language also used amar for “to want, desire” and “to choose, prefer”, senses that Houaiss and the original Caldas Aulete mark as obsolete.^[2][11] Morais (1813) has the figurative use for plants, as vinhas amão a terra temperada “vines love a mild soil”.^[12]

Machado remarks that amar is still a purely literary word in Portuguese and Spanish, as it belongs to the elevated style in Italian.^[4] Corominas notes that in Spanish popular speech querer has long competed with it.^[13] Modern dictionaries add “to make love”.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 1124 – the word in a Latin legal text, Machado's earliest record.^[4]
• 13th century – amar in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda, the cantigas d'amigo and the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[9][3]
• c. 1400 – the earliest CTA text with the verb, a Flos Sanctorum fragment.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses amar with Latin amo and diligo.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau discusses the Latin equivalents amare and diligere.^[10]
• 1871 – Vieira compares Provençal and Spanish amar.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To love: to feel deep affection, tenderness or passion for: Ela ama muito os netos.^[2][18][1]
2. (intransitive) To feel love, to be in love.^[1][19]
3. (transitive) To adore, to be devoted to: amar a sua terra.^[2][14]
4. (transitive) To like very much, to be fond of: Ele ama o cinema italiano.^[2][11]
5. (transitive and reflexive) To make love.^[2][14]
6. (figurative) To thrive in: os pinheiros amam a areia.^[2][12]
7. (obsolete) To want, desire; to choose, prefer.^[2][11]

Word family

• amado
• desamar

Related words

• amor
• amante
• amável
• amigo
• Latin amō

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. amar
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. amar
4. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. amar
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 399
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. amare
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. aimer
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. amar
10. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. amar
11. ^ a b c 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. amar
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 115
13. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 232
14. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 545
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. amar
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. amar
17. ^ 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, 354
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. amar
19. ^ 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. amar