arrestar

Forms

arrestar (first-person singular present arresto, first-person singular preterite arrestei, past participle arrestado)^[1]

Etymology

Houaiss takes it as borrowed from Old French arester (“to stop, hold back, seize”) (today French arrêter), a verb formed from Latin ad- and restō (“to stay, stop, resist”).^[2][3] The DELPo and Vieira also give the Old French verb.^[4][5]

Cunha and Machado derive it instead from Late Latin *arrestō (Vulgar Latin for Wiktionary, Nascentes and the DLP), Cunha with probable influence from the Old French verb;^{[6][7][1][8][9]} Machado asks whether there was such influence, and notes that the Latin verb lived on in Italian and western Romance and took a legal sense in Portuguese.^{[6][7][1][8][9]} Wiktionary adds that the Latin verb is recorded from 1194, when it was itself a borrowing from Romance.^[1] Earlier writers analysed the Portuguese verb as a- + restar: Coelho, as cited by Nascentes, and Silva Bastos.^[10][11]

The same verb is Spanish arrestar, Catalan arrestar, Occitan arrestar and Italian arrestare.^[12][1] The Latin verb is formed re- (“back”) + stō (“to stand”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's earliest example is a Latin text of 1273 that forbids alienating property nec arrestare “nor seizing it”.^[7] The first Portuguese record is the participle arrestado in 1440.^[2] In the 15th century Machado also quotes the variant arestrar: mandou os arestrar ata a praya do mar “he had them held as far as the seashore”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Portuguese the verb became chiefly a legal term, “to seize by court order”, and Cunha also records the sense “to punish”.^[6][7][8] Morais (1789) defines it as “to embargo, fine” and quotes the Commentarios of Afonso de Albuquerque: mandou arrestar todas as nãos, que no porto estavão “he ordered all the ships in the port to be seized”.^[13] His 1813 edition argues that attestar in a passage of the Ordenações Afonsinas should be read arrestar.^[14] Vieira (1871) adds a nautical use: to forbid a ship to leave, or to take it into another port, when it is suspected of breaking neutrality in wartime.^[5]

Timeline

• 1273 – arrestare in a Latin text.^[7]
• 1440 – first Portuguese record, arrestado.^[2]
• 15th century – the variant arestrar; the noun arresto is recorded in the same century.^[7][6]
• 1789 – Morais records it, quoting the Commentarios of Afonso de Albuquerque.^[13]
• 1871 – Vieira records the nautical sense.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law) To seize (assets) by court order as security for a debt; to embargo, sequester: O tribunal arrestou as contas da empresa.^[2][15][1]
2. (archaic) To seize by order of the authorities; to confiscate.^[15][16][1]
3. (archaic) To fine, punish.^[17][16][6]
4. (nautical, historical) To detain (a ship) on suspicion of breaking neutrality.^[5]

Word family

• arresto
• arrestante

Related words

• restar
• Latin restō
• Spanish arrestar

Usage notes

Machado warns against confusing the 15th-century arestrar with arrestrar, a variant of arrastar “to drag”.^[7] A dialect verb arrestar “to make strings (of onions or garlic)” is recorded in Portugal.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. arrestar
3. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. arrêter
4. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. arrestar
5. ^ 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, 577
6. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. arrestar
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. arrestar
8. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. arrestar
9. ^ 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. arrestar
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. arrestar
11. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. arrestar
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 673
13. ^ 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, 120
14. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 192
15. ^ 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. arrestar
16. ^ 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. arrestar
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 163
18. ^ 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. arrestar