ar

Forms

ar m (plural ares)^[1] Medieval texts write aire in the 13th century, and ar, aar, aere and eer in the 14th;^[2][3] aaer also occurs in the 15th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin āēr (“air”), which is from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr, “mist; air”).^[2][4][5][1] The oldest texts write Old Galician-Portuguese aire, Old Galician-Portuguese aere and Old Galician-Portuguese aar.^[2][3] Lorenzo takes the second as the oldest form and the starting point of the third, whose unstressed vowel was drawn to the stressed one.^[3] He finds no need for the intermediate form with a lost semivowel that Cornu had proposed.^[3] Nascentes, following Cornu, still derived the form with a double vowel from it.^[6] That form then contracted to the modern one.^[7][5]

The contracted form has prevailed in Portugal and in literary Galician, but Galician aire is still common in Galician speech.^[7][3] Machado asked whether the medieval Portuguese form with ⟨i⟩ was a Castilianism.^[4] Lorenzo thinks the Galician form may be native, given how early it is recorded.^[4][3] The same Latin word is Spanish aire, Catalan aire, French air and Italian aria, the last from the Greek accusative form.^[8][9]

In Homer the Greek word meant mist or haze, and only later air.^[10] Beekes traces it to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewsér, and Wiktionary relates it to *h₂ews- (“dawn”), so that the first sense would be “morning mist”.^[10][1] The old connection with ἄημι (áēmi, “to blow”) is rejected.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century, as aire.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have faz no aire parar “makes it stop in the air” and u será o ayre de fog' e de suffr' aceso “where the air will be kindled with fire and sulphur”.^[12][3] In the 14th century aar appears: estava a lança no aar “the lance was in the air” in the Demanda do Santo Graal, and sôbre esta pedra, em no aar “above this stone, in the air”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Medieval prose already uses the plural for unhealthy air, aares corruptos in the chronicle of 1344.^[3] The dictionaries describe it as one of the four elements: Bluteau as the light fluid element that surrounds the globe and that no one lives without.^[13] Folqman (1755) has ar for the climate of a place, mudar de ar “to change air”, fazer castellos no ar “to build castles in the air”, and a second sense, the manner or bearing of a person.^[14] Morais (1789) records the chemistry of his time, ar fixo and ar inflammavel, when ar also meant any gas.^[15][2]

Popular speech gave it the sense “stroke, paralysis”, thought to come from a draught of air; it is in Silva Bastos (1912) and in the speech of southern Brazil.^[16][17][2] The 20th century added ar condicionado (1929) and the broadcasting phrases no ar “on the air” and fora do ar “off the air”.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – aire in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[12][2]
• 14th century – aar in the Demanda do Santo Graal.^[3][4]
• 1344 – aares corruptos in a chronicle.^[3]
• c. 1430 – aar in the Horto do Esposo.^[18]
• 15th century – aire is frequent in the chronicle of the Frades Menores.^[4][3]
• 1569 – Cardoso heads the word Ar.^[19]
• 1755 – Folqman records mudar de ar and fazer castellos no ar.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais has ar fixo and ar inflammavel.^[15]
• 1891 – first record of ar comprimido.^[2]
• 1929 – first record of ar condicionado.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. air, the mixture of gases, mainly nitrogen and oxygen, that makes up the atmosphere.^[2][1]
2. The atmosphere (atmosfera); the space above the ground: Os pássaros voavam alto no ar.^[2][20]
3. Moving air; a breeze, a draught: corrente de ar.^[2][21]
4. (often in the plural) The climate of a place: os ares do campo.^[2][20]
5. A person's look or bearing; the appearance of a thing: tinha um ar cansado.^[2][1]
6. A faint sign or trace: um ar de tristeza.^[2][22]
7. (informal) A sudden illness blamed on a draught; a stroke.^[2][22]
8. (obsolete) Any gas.^[2][20]
9. (broadcasting) In the phrases no ar “on the air” and fora do ar “off the air”.^[2]

Word family

• arejar
• aragem
• airoso
• ar condicionado
• ar livre

Related words

• aéreo
• Latin āēr
• Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr)
• Spanish aire

Usage notes

Ar is also the chemical symbol of argon.^[2][23]

The medieval language had another ar, an adverb meaning “again, also, moreover”, frequent in the cantigas (nunca jamais prazer ar vi “never again did I see joy”) and in use until about 1500.^[4][24][25] Wiktionary derives it from Latin re- “again”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 q r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. aar
4. ^ a b c d e f g Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. ar
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ar
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 40
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 90
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 240
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. aer
10. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ἀήρ
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. air
12. ^ 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. aire
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ar
14. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ar
15. ^ 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, 105
16. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. ar
17. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. ar
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. aar
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ar
20. ^ 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. ar
21. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ar
22. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 849
23. ^ 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. ar
24. ^ 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. ar
25. ^ 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. ar