banhar

Forms

banhar (first-person singular present banho, first-person singular preterite banhei, past participle banhado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote banhar and bannar;^[2][3] Houaiss also records bañar in the 14th century and bãhar and baanhar in the 15th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *baneō, from balneō (“to bathe”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bannar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][4][1][3] Cunha gives the Latin verb directly as the source.^[5] Aurélio, Michaelis and Figueiredo instead form the verb from Portuguese banho + -ar.^[6][7][8]

The same Latin verb is Galician bañar, Spanish bañar, Catalan banyar, Occitan banhar, French baigner and Italian bagnare.^[9][1] The French ⟨ai⟩ comes from the noun bain.^[9]

The Latin verb is a derivative of balneum (“bath, bathroom”), which comes from Ancient Greek βαλανεῖον (balaneîon, “bath”).^[1][10] Wiktionary notes that the loan must be early, since the second vowel was reduced and then lost in Latin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][5] Machado's first quotation is from a cantiga d'amigo of Martim Codax, whose girl invites her friends to the sea of Vigo: e banharmos nas ondas “and let us bathe in the waves”.^[4] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have levou-a a bannar “took her to bathe”, of a bride bathed before her wedding, as was the custom in Toledo.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From washing in water the verb came to mean wetting with any liquid: Bluteau gives molhar “to wet” as the first sense and banhar-se for taking baths.^[11] Folqman already has the river that “bathes” the fields, and Morais the sea or river that washes the lands and shores it reaches.^[12][13] Figurative uses followed: a face “bathed” in tears or in sweat, a valley bathed in light.^[2][13] Vieira adds a painters' sense, laying a colour over another.^[14]

In north-eastern Brazil banhar-se also means “to profit, help oneself” and, as a taboo word, to wash after sex.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 1200s – first records; a cantiga d'amigo of Martim Codax has banharmos nas ondas.^[2][5][4]
• 1300s – the spelling bañar, and in the 1400s bãhar and baanhar.^[2]
• 1513 – the earliest dated prose witness in the CTA, the Livro dos Mártires.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses banhar with Latin perfundo.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives molhar and banhar-se “to take baths”.^[11]
• 1755 – Folqman records a river that “bathes” the fields.^[12]
• 1836 – first record of banheira “bathtub”.^[5]
• 1871 – first records of banheiro and banhista.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To bathe; to give a bath to or take a bath; to wash: Banhou o cão no quintal.^[2][1][18]
2. (transitive) To wet or moisten with water or another liquid.^[2][15]
3. (transitive) To immerse in water or another liquid.^[2][19]
4. (transitive) Of a sea, river or lake: to flow past or wash the shores of a place.^[2][1][6]
5. (transitive and reflexive, figurative) To cover or be covered, to flood or surround, with tears, sweat, light or sound.^[2][19]
6. (reflexive, north-eastern Brazil) To profit, take advantage.^[2][15]

Word family

• banhado
• banheira
• banheiro
• banhista

Related words

• banho
• balneário
• Latin balneum
• Galician bañar

Usage notes

In the Alentejo banhar is also an intransitive verb meaning “to swim”.^[20][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. banhar
3. ^ 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. bannar
4. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. banhar
5. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. banhar
6. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. banhar
7. ^ 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. banhar
8. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. banhar
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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. banhar
12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. banhar
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, 64
14. ^ 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, 720
15. ^ a b c 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. banhar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. banhar
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. banhar
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. banhar
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1253
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. banhar