arrepender

Forms

arrepender (first-person singular present arrependo, first-person singular preterite arrependi, past participle arrependido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had the verb both without and with the prefix: rrepender, repeender, rrepeeder and repentir beside arrepender, arrepeender and arreprehender.^[2][3][4] Feijó (1734) sets the spelling Arrepender against the form Arripender.^[5]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese a- + repender, the older verb without the prefix.^[2][1][6] The older verb, written Old Galician-Portuguese repender and Old Galician-Portuguese repeender, comes from the Medieval Latin verb repoeniteō (“to feel regret”), recorded from the 8th century, which Houaiss and Priberam give as Vulgar Latin *repoeniteō.^[2][1][7] It was formed from re- and Latin paeniteō (“to cause regret; to repent”).^[1][8] Wiktionary suggests that the prefix a- was added to keep the verb apart from the unrelated pender (“to hang”).^[1]

Machado sees in the old forms Old Galician-Portuguese arreprehender and Old Galician-Portuguese arrepreender a crossing with prender.^[9] The Latin verb is compared with paene (“almost”) in the OLD, and Wiktionary also links it with paenūria (“shortage”), the idea being a feeling of lack or dissatisfaction.^[10][1] Lewis and Short connected it with poena (“penalty”).^[11]

The same Late Latin verb gave Old Spanish repentirse, now Spanish arrepentirse, and Galician arrepentir and French repentir.^[12][8][1] Corominas thinks the true Castilian form was rependirse, with a /d/ like the Portuguese verb, and that the /t/ of the Spanish verb is due to French influence, which the Portuguese verb escaped.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb first appears in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century as repentir, meaning “to repent of one's sins”: dos erros nos faz repentir “makes us repent of our errors”, and repentiu-ss' e foy perdon / pedir “he repented and went to ask forgiveness”.^[4][4] Houaiss dates the form rrepender to the same century.^[2] The prefixed form is recorded in the Crónica Geral of 1344, which has arrependeusse “he repented” and arreprehendeo.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Cunha glosses the verb as “to retract, to go back on something”, beside the religious sense of repentance.^[3][4] In the 15th century Machado quotes se arephendeo do caminho que levava “he regretted the road he was taking”.^[9] The proverb comprar e arrepender “buy and regret” is in Delicado's collection of adages, as Vieira notes.^[13] Vieira's dictionary of 1871 already says that the verb is used above all reflexively, and Priberam and Michaelis record it as a pronominal verb, the intransitive use being rare.^[13][7][6]

In Brazil the verb also says that the weather is turning bad.^[2][14][7] A Portuguese dialect survey recorded arrepender for “to scold”.^[15]

Timeline

• 13th century – Houaiss's first record, spelt rrepender.^[2]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use repentir “to repent”.^[4]
• 1344 – the Crónica Geral has arrependeusse, the first record of the prefixed verb, beside arreprehendeo.^[4][2]
• 14th century – Cunha records arrepender, arrepenter and repeender.^[3]
• 15th century – Machado quotes se arephendeo do caminho.^[9]
• 1542 – a private letter has the form aRependã.^[16]
• 1734 – Feijó discusses the spelling Arrepender against Arripender.^[5]
• 1871 – Vieira derives the verb from Spanish, and reports Morais's derivation from Latin with the prefix re-.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (pronominal) To repent: to feel sorrow for a wrong one has done: Ele arrependeu-se dos seus pecados.^[2][1][7]
2. (pronominal, with de) To regret having done, or not done, something: Arrependi-me de não ter viajado.^[2][1][7]
3. (pronominal) To change one's mind; to go back on a decision or a commitment.^[2][7][6]
4. (Brazil, informal, of the weather) To turn bad, threatening rain.^[2][7]

Word family

• arrependido
• arrependimento

Related words

• penitência
• penitente
• Latin paeniteō
• Galician arrepentir
• Spanish arrepentirse

Usage notes

Priberam notes that the verb is used only as a pronominal verb, and Michaelis that an intransitive use is very exceptional.^[7][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. arrepender
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. arrepender
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. repentir
5. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. arrepender
6. ^ a b c d 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. arrepender
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. arrepender
8. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 353
9. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. arrepender
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. paeniteō
11. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. paeniteo
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. repoenitere
13. ^ 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, 576
14. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. arrepender
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. arrepender
16. ^ 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. arrepender