avançar

Forms

avançar (first-person singular present avanço, first-person singular preterite avancei, past participle avançado)^[1] Fifteenth-century texts write both avançar and auaançar.^[2] A private letter of 1672 spells the preterite abansei.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Catalan avançar (“to go forward”), which comes from Vulgar Latin *abantiō, derived from Late Latin abante (“in front, forward”), a compound of Latin ab and ante.^[4][2][1][5]

Houaiss names the Catalan verb, in the old spelling avansar, or Old Occitan avansar, with the influence of Spanish avanzar.^[2] Machado also takes it through the Occitan verb, perhaps with Spanish interference.^[6] Nascentes and Aurélio derive it from the Occitan form by way of Spanish.^[7][8] The DLP gives French avancer as the intermediary.^[9] The Spanish verb was itself taken from Catalan in the mid-15th century, and later took its military sense from the French one.^[10][11] The French verb is recorded from the 12th century.^[12]

The second element of the Late Latin compound is the locative of a root noun Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- (“front, front side”).^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the participle, in a chronicle of 1344 that says the nobility of the Goths “was always to the fore” (a nobreza dos Godos sempre foi avançada).^[14][2] The infinitive appears in the 15th century.^[2] Machado's earliest quotation for the verb is from the 17th century, in Baltasar Teles's História Geral da Ethiopia: the Jesuits were ready to break through every difficulty if there was any hope of being able to “advance this conquest” (avançar esta conquista).^[6] Cunha also dates the verb to the 17th century, the participle to the 14th.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau's first sense is “to attack”, as in avançar ao inimigo, and a second one is “to gain”: naõ avançareis nada com isto “you will gain nothing by this”.^[15] Feijó (1734) warns against confusing avançar “to attack” with avençar “to come to an agreement with someone”.^[16] Morais (1789) adds “to make go forward, gain ground” and “to post (troops) in front of the army or the trenches”.^[17]

The original Aulete records the architectural sense “to jut out, form a projection”.^[18] Modern dictionaries add figurative senses: to make progress, to spread, to put forward an idea boldly, and of time, to pass.^[2][8][9] In Rio Grande do Sul it also means to attack (of a dog) and to seize something greedily, a use Schlee compares with American Spanish avanzar.^[19]

Timeline

• 1344 – the participle avançada in a chronicle.^[14][2]
• 1436 – the participle again, in a description of Portugal.^[14]
• 15th century – the infinitive avançar, also written auaançar.^[2]
• 17th century – avançar esta conquista in Baltasar Teles's História Geral da Ethiopia.^[6][4]
• 1672 – abansei in a private letter.^[3]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives “to attack” and “to gain”.^[15]
• 1734 – Feijó separates avançar from avençar.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais lists the military senses.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To go or move forward; to get ahead.^[2][8][20]
2. (transitive) To make (something) move forward.^[2][8][21]
3. To progress, or make progress with (a task): as obras avançam devagar.^[2][9][21]
4. To spread or extend over something; to project or jut out.^[2][20]
5. To rush at, attack (someone); (Brazil) to fall greedily on (food, goods).^[2][5][1]
6. To put forward (an idea or hypothesis), often boldly.^[2][8][21]
7. To surpass, exceed.^[2][8][1]
8. (Portugal) To advance (money); to give out (news) ahead of time.^[21]
9. Of time, to go by.^[2][9]

Word family

• avançada
• avançado
• avanço

Related words

• avante
• Spanish avanzar
• French avancer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. avançar
3. ^ a b 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. avançar
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. avançar
5. ^ 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. avançar
6. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. avançar
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. avançar
8. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. avançar
9. ^ a b c d 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. avançar
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 416
11. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. avanzar
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. avancer
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c 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. avançar
15. ^ 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. avançar
16. ^ 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. avançar
17. ^ 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, 144
18. ^ 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. avançar
19. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. avançar
20. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. avançar
21. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1142