caçar

Forms

caçar (first-person singular present caço, first-person singular preterite cacei, past participle caçado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *captiō (“to hunt, catch”), written Old Galician-Portuguese caçar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Houaiss, Cunha and the DLP derive the Vulgar Latin verb from classical captō (“to try to catch, seize”), which Aurélio calls the frequentative of capiō (“to take hold of, seize”).^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary forms it from the past participle captus (“caught”).^[1] The DCECH points out that the Late Latin captiōsus (“intent on hunting”), used by the African writer Stephanus in the 6th century, shows indirectly that the verb existed then.^[6]

The same Vulgar Latin verb is Galician cazar, Spanish cazar, Catalan caçar, Occitan caçar, French chasser, Italian cacciare and Romanian acăța.^[7][1] The Spanish verb is recorded about 1140, in the poem of the Cid.^[8] Houaiss names cacear “to drift, of a ship” as a divergent form of the Portuguese verb.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][3] Lorenzo's chronology antedates Machado's 14th-century record with the Cantigas de Santa Maria, where a man had someone caçasse enas montannas mui fortes, e eno mar que pescasse “hunt in the very rugged mountains, and fish in the sea”.^[9] A cantiga d'amigo uses it in the sense “to reach, obtain”, and the Crónica Troiana has fazia caçar falcões, of hunting with falcons.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) defines the verb as taking birds and animals with snares, traps or shots, and records two sailors' uses: caçar a escota, to haul in the sheet so that the wind fills the sail better, and of a ship, to drift away from its course under the force of the current or the wind, also said cacear.^[10] Vieira (1871–1874) adds a figurative “to catch, get hold of”, quoting António Ferreira's Bristo: Cacei aquelles cruzadinhos para começo de paga “I caught those little cruzados as a first payment”.^[11]

In Brazil the verb also means to hunt down a person in order to arrest them, and to search hard for something until one gets it, such as a book, a word or a job.^[2][12][5]

Timeline

• 1200s – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3][9]
• c. 1430 – used in the Horto do Esposo (manuscript of 1390–1437).^[13]
• 1734 – Feijó distinguishes caçar “to go hunting” from cassar.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais records the nautical senses.^[10]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira records the figurative “to catch, get hold of”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hunt: to pursue wild animals in order to capture or kill them: Caçavam perdizes no outono.^[2][5][1]
2. (intransitive) To go hunting.^[2][4]
3. (Brazil) To pursue a person in order to arrest them; to hunt down.^[2][12]
4. (Brazil) To look hard for something; to manage to get it at last: caçar um apartamento barato.^[2][5]
5. To pick up, collect (alms, gifts).^[2]
6. (nautical) To haul in the sheet of a sail.^[2][5][4]
7. (nautical, intransitive) Of a ship, to drift off course under the force of the current or the wind.^[4][15]

Word family

• caça
• caçada
• caçador

Related words

• cacear
• Galician cazar

Usage notes

Caçar is pronounced like cassar “to annul”;^[14][16] Feijó already warned that the two are different words.^[14][16] García de Diego records the verb in Trás-os-Montes in the sense “to fish”.^[17]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. caçar
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. caçar
4. ^ 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. caçar
5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. caçar
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 932
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1662
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cazar
9. ^ 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. caçar
10. ^ 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, 208
11. ^ 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. 2, 17
12. ^ 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. caçar
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. caçar
14. ^ a b c 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. caçar
15. ^ 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. caçar
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. caçar
17. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. captiare