caber

Forms

caber (first-person singular present caibo, first-person singular preterite coube, past participle cabido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin capiō (“to take, seize; to hold, contain”), written Old Galician-Portuguese caber in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Portuguese sense “to have room, to fit” continues the Latin “to contain, have room for”, which Corominas finds common already in classical Latin.^[4] Its first-person present and preterite are irregular, and Williams treats it among the radical-changing verbs.^[1][5]

The same Latin verb is Galician caber, Spanish caber, Catalan caber, Occitan caber and Old French chavoir, all “to have room”; Italian capire means “to understand”, and Romanian încăpea continues a compound.^[6][1]

The Latin verb goes back to *kapiō.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs an i-present Proto-Indo-European *kh₂p-i- (“to seize”), though he allows that the root may not be Indo-European, and compares Ancient Greek κάπτω (káptō, “to gulp down”) and Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍆𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hafjan, “to lift”).^[7] Wiktionary gives *kh₂pyéti, from the root *kap- (“to seize, grab”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A document from Guarda of 1289, quoted by Viterbo, has the verb in the sense “to accept”: someone bound himself de caber toda rrem que os ditos Juizes arvidros julgassem “to accept whatever the said arbiters judged”.^[8] The troubadours used it in the same way, nom lho queremos nós caber “we will not accept it from him”, and in the sense “to be contained”: Pai Gomez Charinho has eno mar cabe quant' i quer caber “in the sea there is room for all that will go in”.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts already have the main senses: “to have room, fit” in the Crónica Troiana, “to accept” in the cantigas and “to be fitting” in a satirical song of Estevan da Guarda.^[10][11] Bluteau (1712–1728) adds “to fall to someone by lot or inheritance”, “to be someone's turn” and “to be the right moment for”, as in aqui cabe falar.^[12] Folqman (1755) gives the same uses.^[13] Modern dictionaries keep all of them and add “to be someone's responsibility”, with caber a.^[2][14][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record of the verb, according to Houaiss.^[2]
• 1289 – caber “to accept” in a document from Guarda.^[8]
• 1431–1446 – the Visão de Túndalo has the verb, its first occurrence in the CTA corpus.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders caber by Latin capio.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the senses “to fit”, “to fall by lot” and “to be the moment for”.^[12]
• 1836 – first record of the derivative cabimento.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, with em) To fit, to be able to be contained in: A mala não cabe no carro.^[2][14][1]
2. (intransitive, with por) To be able to pass through an opening: O sofá não cabia pela porta.^[2][14][1]
3. To be able to be done or said within a given time.^[2][14]
4. To be compatible or fitting; to be opportune: Aqui cabe uma pergunta.^[14][19]
5. (with a) To be someone's responsibility, to be up to someone: Cabe ao juiz decidir.^[14][15][1]
6. (with a) To fall to someone as a share or by lot: Coube-lhe a casa do avô.^[15][12][1]

Word family

• cabimento
• cabível

Related words

• capacidade
• cativante
• cativar
• cativeiro
• cativo
• Latin capiō
• Galician caber

Usage notes

Viterbo also records a medieval noun caber, which he took to mean “capital spent on improving a property”, in documents of 1280 and 1314;^[8][20] Vieira found that meaning doubtful.^[8][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. caber
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 84
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 710
5. ^ Williams, Edwin B. (1938), From Latin to Portuguese: Historical Phonology and Morphology of the Portuguese Language, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 175, 179
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1625
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 221
9. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. caber
10. ^ a b 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. caber
11. ^ 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. caber
12. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caber
13. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caber
14. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. caber
15. ^ a b c 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. caber
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. caber
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caber
18. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cabimento
19. ^ 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. caber
20. ^ 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, 10