bailar

Forms

bailar (first-person singular present bailo, first-person singular preterite bailei, past participle bailado)^[1] Houaiss's historical forms are baylar (13th century) and bailar (15th century); bailhar and balhar are 15th-century variants.^[2][3][4] Michaelis still lists balhar as a variant.^[5]

Etymology

In Houaiss's view it is inherited from Late Latin ballō (“to dance”), which he links to Ancient Greek πάλλω (pállō, “to leap, shake”), and notes that the ⟨i⟩ of the Ibero-Romance forms is unexplained.^[2] Cunha, Machado, Porto Editora and Michaelis also start from the Late Latin verb.^[3][4][6][5] Machado cites it from Augustine's sermons.^[4]

Machado thinks it may come from a form ⟨*baliar⟩ or ⟨*bailiar⟩, which would also explain the variant ⟨balhar⟩, or from Castilian influence, and rejects borrowing from Old Occitan balar.^[4] Corominas, on the contrary, takes Spanish bailar from that verb, crossed in the Pyrenees with a verb meaning “to rock”, still used in Upper Aragon, from Latin bāiulō (“to carry”); an inherited verb, he argues, would have given ⟨ballar⟩ in Castilian and ⟨balar⟩ in Portuguese.^[7][8] Aurélio allows the Occitan route for Portuguese as well.^[9] Meyer-Lübke preferred to derive the Portuguese and Spanish verbs from the verb for carrying alone, and the Academia's dictionary gives both Latin verbs as possible sources.^[10][11]

The Late Latin verb also gave Italian ballare, Old French baler and Catalan ballar.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is common in the cantigas d'amigo of the 13th century, with the sense “to dance”.^[2][13] Machado quotes Pero Meogo, fostes, filha, eno baylar / e rompestes hi o brial “you went to the dance, daughter, and tore your tunic there”, where the infinitive is used as a noun.^[4][13]

Semantic evolution

Johan de Gaia's baila corpo brioso “a spirited body dances” and the many forms in the cantigas show the verb at the centre of the courtly dance songs.^[13][14] The derivatives bailada “dance song” (13th century), baile and bailadeira followed.^[3] Bluteau records the proverb bem baila a quem a fortuna faz o som “he dances well for whom fortune plays the tune”, and Morais the phrase bailar de terreiro for dancing in competition.^[15][16]

The transferred sense “to sway, flicker, tremble”, of a flame or of tears, is quoted from Herculano in the old Aulete.^[17][2] Schlee records the verb in Rio Grande do Sul, in senses shared with the Spanish of the Plate.^[18]

Timeline

• 13th century – baylar in the cantigas d'amigo, and the derivative bailada.^[2][3][13]
• 15th century – the variants bailhar and balhar.^[3][4]
• 1513 – first use in the prose of the CTA corpus, in the Livro dos Mártires.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it by Latin salto and tripudio.^[20]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives two proverbs with the verb.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais records bailar de terreiro.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To dance: Bailaram a noite inteira.^[2][9][1]
2. (transitive) To perform (a dance): bailar uma mazurca.^[2][9][6]
3. (intransitive, figurative) To sway, flicker or tremble, as if dancing: A luz da vela bailava.^[2][9][21]
4. To move about in curves, to whirl.^[9][17]

Word family

• baile
• bailado
• bailada
• bailadeira
• bailador

Related words

• dançar
• balada
• Late Latin ballō
• Spanish bailar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. bailar
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. bailar
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. bailar
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. bailar
6. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1209
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 459
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bailar
9. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. bailar
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. 59
11. ^ 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. bailar
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ballare
13. ^ a b c d 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. bailar
14. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. bailar
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. bailar
16. ^ 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, 58
17. ^ 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. bailar
18. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. bailar
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. bailar
20. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bailar
21. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. bailar