aparar

Forms

aparar (first-person singular present aparo, first-person singular preterite aparei, past participle aparado)^[1] Houaiss records apparar in the 13th century and aparar in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

According to Houaiss, Machado and the DLP it is inherited from Latin apparō (“to prepare, make ready”), a compound of ad- and parō (“to prepare, provide”).^[2][3][4][5] The Romance verbs of this Latin word are Galician aparar, Spanish aparar, Italian apparare, Old French aparer and Romanian apăra “to defend”.^[6][7]

Others see it as formed from Portuguese a- + parar: so Silva Bastos, Figueiredo, Aurélio and Michaelis.^{[8][9][10][11]} Nascentes allows both, noting that the sense “to cut” favours the Latin word, and records that Meyer-Lübke, while listing the Portuguese verb under the Latin, thought it might be a later formation.^[12][13] Wiktionary gives the prefixed form first and the Latin verb as a possibility.^[1] In Spanish, Corominas treats the old sense “to prepare” as a survival of the meaning of the simple Latin verb, and the sense “to hold out the hands to catch something”, from the early 17th century, as matching the simple verbs of Catalan, Occitan and Italian.^[14]

Vieira (1871) went further and gave the senses separate origins: the Latin meaning “to adorn”, the phrase ⟨a par⟩ “level” for “to trim”, and the verb meaning “to stop” for “to catch”.^[15][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

A document of 1234–1236 has aparava “he defended, protected” (et aparava per pignores), and a cantiga d'escarnho of Afonso Eanes do Coton uses it for “to provide, to arrange” (que me Deus aparou “that God provided for me”).^[17] The Cantigas glossary also gives “to use, employ”.^[18]

Semantic evolution

Machado's first quotation, from Gil Vicente in the 16th century, still has “to provide”: que m apare Deos a cesta “may God fill my basket for me”.^[3] The sense “to catch something thrown or falling” is quoted by Vieira from the Nobiliário of Count Pedro.^[16] In a sonnet of Camões that he also quotes, the speaker will aparar debaixo o soffrimento “catch the suffering from below”.^[16] Morais (1789) gives “to receive in the hands or lap something thrown”, “to receive a blow” and “to cut off a useless part”, as of fruit, paper or a quill being made ready for writing, and the figurative aparar a pena “to polish one's style”.^[19]

Vieira also records the fencing and jogo do pau sense of parrying every blow.^[16] Houaiss adds the Brazilian senses “to flatter, pamper” and, in the north-east, “to deliver a baby”, and the bookbinder's sense of trimming the edges of the leaves.^[2] In Rio Grande do Sul it is also to prepare maize husk for rolling cigarettes.^[20]

Timeline

• 1234–1236 – aparava “he protected” in a document.^[17]
• 13th century – the spelling apparar;^[21] aparar from the 15th century.^[2]
• 16th century – que m apare Deos a cesta in Gil Vicente.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Aparar with Latin apparo.^[21]
• 1789 – Morais gives the senses “to catch”, “to receive a blow” and “to trim”.^[19]
• 1871 – Vieira gives the senses separate origins.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To catch or hold something that falls or is thrown, with the hands or an object: Aparou a chave no ar.^[2][22]
2. To stop a moving body; to receive a blow so as to ward it off: o guarda-redes aparou o remate.^[2][10]
3. To cut off an excess part; to trim: aparar a barba.^[2][1]
4. To smooth, to plane down: aparar uma prancha.^[2]
5. To sharpen to a point: aparar o lápis.^[2][23]
6. (figurative) To refine, to polish: aparar a escrita.^[2][24]
7. (figurative) To bear, to endure: aparar a saudade.^[2][23]
8. (Brazil) To flatter, to pamper with gifts and attentions.^[2]
9. (north-eastern Brazil) To deliver a baby, to attend a birth.^[2][24]
10. (bookbinding) To trim the edges of the leaves of a book so that they are even.^[2][23]

Word family

• apara
• aparo
• aparador

Related words

• parar
• aparelho
• aparato
• Latin apparō
• Spanish aparar

Usage notes

Michaelis gives a separate entry aparar “to prepare; to adorn”, from the Latin verb, beside the common verb, which it derives from parar.^[11] Vieira marks the senses “to adorn” and “to bring, provide” as old.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. aparar
3. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. aparar
4. ^ 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. aparar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. apparō
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 534
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. apparare
8. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. aparar
9. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 106
10. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. aparar
11. ^ 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. aparar
12. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. aparar
13. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 37
14. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 393
15. ^ 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, 466
16. ^ a b c d 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, 467
17. ^ a b 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. aparar
18. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. aparar
19. ^ 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, 91
20. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. aparar
21. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aparar
22. ^ 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. aparar
23. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 767
24. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. aparar