aumentar

Forms

aumentar (first-person singular present aumento, first-person singular preterite aumentei, past participle aumentado)^[1] From the 17th to the 19th century the dictionaries head the word with the Latin spelling augmentar: Pereira (1697), Bluteau (1712–1728), Feijó (1734) and Morais (1789).^[2][3][4][5] Vieira (1871–1874) still heads augmentar, noting that it is pronounced aumentar, and refers aumentar to it.^[6][7]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin augmentō (“to increase”), first recorded in the 14th century.^{[8][9][10][1]} Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing and Nascentes a semi-learned one.^[1][11] The Late Latin verb is formed from Latin augmentum (“growth, increase”), itself from augeō (“to increase”).^[1][12]

The same Late Latin verb gave Spanish aumentar, also a learned word, and French augmenter, borrowed in the mid-14th century.^[13][14] It is cognate with the English word augment.^[1]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *augeje/o- and derives it from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eug-eie-.^[15] Wiktionary gives the root as *h₂ewg- and names the cognates Proto-Germanic *aukaną, Ancient Greek αὐξάνω (auxánō) and Lithuanian áugti.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's earliest record is from the 14th-century Corte Imperial, which speaks of the supreme justice that created the human mind to share in it and increases it so that it may be wise: para partiçipar dei e aumentaa pera seer sabedor.^[10] The sense is already “to increase, make greater”.^[10][9]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept its Latin sense, both transitive (“to make larger”) and intransitive (“to grow”).^[8][16] Cunha records aumentação and aumentador in the 16th century, and Houaiss dates the noun aumento, from Latin augmentum, to 1540.^[9][17] Morais (1789) gives examples such as increasing rent, a house, holiness, speed or a population.^[5] Caldas Aulete adds “to raise in honours or position” and “to invent things that are not true”.^[18] Figueiredo (1899) marks the sense “to invent” as provincial, and dialect surveys in Portugal still record it.^[19][20] Modern dictionaries add the sense “to give someone a pay rise”.^[21]

Timeline

• 14th century – aumentaa in the Corte Imperial.^[10][9]
• 1540 – first record of the noun aumento.^[17]
• 16th century – aumentação and aumentador are recorded.^[9]
• 1584 – aumente in a private letter.^[22]
• 1697 – Pereira heads the word augmentar.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau glosses augmentar as “to add to”.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais heads augmentar, transitive and reflexive.^[5]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira still heads augmentar, pronounced aumentar.^[6]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the provincial sense “to invent”.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To increase, make or become larger in size, number, amount or intensity: Os preços aumentaram outra vez este mês.^[8][16][1]
2. To make something look bigger; to magnify: Estes óculos aumentam muito a letra.^[8][16]
3. To make faster: aumentar a velocidade.^[8]
4. (with de) To gain in weight, size and so on.^[8][18]
5. To make worse, aggravate: A espera só aumentava a sua aflição.^[8][16]
6. To add something to a text or a sum: Aumentou duas linhas à carta.^[8][16]
7. To embellish a story by exaggerating or inventing.^[8][16]
8. To make progress, prosper.^[16][23]
9. To give someone a pay rise.^[21]

Word family

• aumentação
• aumentador
• aumentativo

Related words

• aumentável
• aumento
• Latin augmentum
• Spanish aumentar

Usage notes

The proverb quem conta um conto aumenta um ponto “whoever tells a tale adds a stitch” says that stories grow in the retelling.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. augmentar
3. ^ 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. augmentar
4. ^ 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. augmentar
5. ^ a b c 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, 149
6. ^ 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, 657
7. ^ 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, 660
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. aumentar
9. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. aumentar
10. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. aumentar
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. aumentar
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. augmentum
13. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. augmentare
14. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. augmenter
15. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. augeō
16. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. aumentar
17. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. aumento
18. ^ 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. aumentar
19. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 152
20. ^ 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. aumentar
21. ^ 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. aumentar
22. ^ 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. aumentar
23. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. aumentar