atrever

Forms

atrever (first-person singular present atrevo, first-person singular preterite atrevi, past participle atrevido)^[1] The verb is used only as a reflexive, atrever-se.^[2][3] Houaiss lists the old forms atrouer (14th century), ateruer and atreeuer (15th century).^[3] Machado finds the variant estrever in the 15th century and notes that it is still in common use.^[4][5] García de Diego records astrever-se in Trás-os-Montes.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin attribuō (“to assign, attribute”) according to Machado, Wiktionary, Michaelis, Priberam and Nascentes (after Diez, A. Coelho and Cornu), written Old Galician-Portuguese atrever in the oldest texts.^{[4][1][6][2][7][3]} The sources disagree on the Latin verb, however: the DLP keeps the compound and adds the reflexive sense “to grant oneself the power”.^[8] Cunha, Aurélio and Porto Editora start instead from the simple verb tribuō (“to assign, bestow”), used reflexively in the sense “to credit oneself with the ability”.^{[9][10][11][3]} Houaiss gives the compound as the etymon but reports Nascentes's view that the meaning favours the simple verb.^{[9][10][11][3]} Aurélio compares Old Spanish treverse.^[10]

In Spanish, the form without a- is recorded before the prefixed one, in the poem of the Cid and in Berceo, which García de Diego takes as support for the simple verb; he adds that the loss of the first syllable of the compound would also be regular, so the question stays open.^[12][5] Meyer-Lübke instead traced the Leonese variant estreverse, like estriver, to a Lombardic word for “strife”.^[5] Nascentes calls Cortesão's derivation from a Greek word meaning “not to tremble” impossible in both form and history.^[7] Wiktionary calls the verb a doublet of the learned atribuir.^[1]

The same verb is Galician atrever, Spanish atrever, Catalan atrevir, Asturian atrevese and Mirandese atrebir.^[1][13]

The simple verb is derived from tribus (“tribe, division of the people”).^[14][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[3][9] Machado quotes a cantiga of King Dinis, ou como sse atreuera / De m'ousar sol dos seus olhos catar, where it means “to dare”: “or how he had dared even to look into her eyes”.^[4] In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda the reflexive also means “to trust, rely on” (atrever-se em alguém), and the Cantigas de Santa Maria use it for daring to steal from the Virgin.^[15]

Semantic evolution

The medieval verb meant both “to dare” and “to trust in” (atrever-se em); the lyric poets also used it for “to boast”.^[15][16] The constructions with de and em gave way to atrever-se a.^[15] Bluteau in the 18th century glosses it with Latin audere and quotes não me atrevo a dizer o que sinto.^[17] Vieira lists “to dare, venture”, and figuratively “to trust, to hope” and “to resist, face up to”.^[18] Today the main senses are to dare and to confront.^[3][8]

The derivatives are as old as the verb: atrevudo and atrevimento are recorded in the 13th century, atrevido in the 14th.^[9]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records of atrever, atrevudo and atrevimento.^[9][3]
• 13th century – the verb in the cantigas of King Dinis and in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][15]
• 14th century – the form atrouer and the participle atrevido.^[3][9]
• 15th century – the forms ateruer, atreeuer and estrever.^[3][4]
• 1546 – atrevo in a private letter.^[19]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau glosses atreverse with Latin audere.^[17]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives the verb from a Low Latin treuvare “to impose taxes”, a view no later source repeats.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To dare; to have the courage or boldness to do something: Ninguém se atreveu a contradizer o chefe.^[3][10][1]
2. (reflexive) To make up one's mind to do something risky; to venture.^[3][2]
3. (reflexive) To confront or attack; to stand up to: É tão valente que se atreve a um lobo.^[3][10][6]
4. (reflexive, archaic) To trust, rely on (atrever-se em).^[15][6]

Word family

• atrevido
• atrevimento

Related words

• atribuir
• ousar
• Spanish atrever

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. atrever
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. atrever-se
4. ^ a b c d e f Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. atrever
5. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. attribuere
6. ^ a b c 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. atrever
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 52
8. ^ 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. atrever-se
9. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. atrever
10. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. atrever-se
11. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1087
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. tribuere
13. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. atrever
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b c d e 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. atrever-se
16. ^ 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. atrever-se
17. ^ 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. atreverse
18. ^ a b 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, 648
19. ^ 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. atrever