cair

Forms

cair (first-person singular present caio, first-person singular preterite caí, past participle caído)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had queir (1259) and caer (13th century); cair appears in the 14th century, and Houaiss also records acair in 1516.^[2][3] From the 16th to the 19th century the verb was often spelt cahir;^[4][5] Morais (1789) heads it so, and Vieira (1871) prefers cair because the ⟨h⟩ has no etymological ground.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cadēre, the Late Latin form of Latin cadō (“to fall”) moved to the second conjugation, written Old Galician-Portuguese caer in the oldest texts.^[1][6][2][3] The Latin /d/ between vowels was lost, as in meio from medius and juiz from iūdex, so that the Latin infinitive gave the medieval form, which became the modern one in the 14th century.^[5][3]

The same Latin word is Galician caer, Spanish caer, Catalan caure, Old Occitan cazer, Old French cheoir, Italian cadere and Romanian cădea.^[6][1] Corominas notes that the oldest participle was Old Galician-Portuguese caedo, from Vulgar Latin *caditus; its feminine, used as a noun, survives contracted in queda “fall”.^[7]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *kadō.^[8][1] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *ḱad- (“to fall”); de Vaan reconstructs the root only tentatively.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is queir in a text of 1259 from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] Before that the word appears in Latin documents: a charter of 1082 has et kaibit illa in portione filiis suis “and it shall fall to his sons as their share”, with the sense “to fall to someone's lot” that Cunha also lists among the medieval senses.^[9][3] Nascentes quotes si caer pectet mille morabitinos “if he falls, let him pay a thousand maravedis” from a Latin law of 1225 in the Portugaliae Monumenta Historica.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval language the verb meant both “to fall to the ground” and “to fall to, be due to” someone.^[3] Corominas notes that caer is still the general form in the cantigas.^[7] Barbosa (1611) already lists figurative uses: cair na cama “to fall ill”, cair em algum vicio “to fall into a vice” and cair na conta “to come to one's senses”.^[11]

The modern senses cover weather (cai a chuva), prices and values, the death of soldiers, the fall of governments and laws, a date on which a feast falls, and clothes that hang well or badly.^[2][12][13] Recent use added the dropping of a telephone call or connection.^[1][14] In north-eastern Brazil cair no mato or cair na caatinga means to vanish without trace.^[15] In Rio Grande do Sul the verb also means “to arrive, turn up”, as in the Plate region.^[16]

Timeline

• 1082 – a Latin charter has kaibit “shall fall (to)”.^[9]
• 1225 – a Latin law has si caer pectet.^[10]
• 1259 – first Portuguese record, spelt queir.^[2]
• 13th century – caer is the usual form.^[3][7]
• 14th century – first record of cair.^[2][3]
• 1446 – the Visão de Túndalo (witness of 1431–1446) uses the verb.^[17]
• 1516 – Houaiss records the variant acair.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Cair with Latin cado and ruo.^[18]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists cair na cama and cair na conta.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais enters cair with a cross-reference to cahir.^[4]
• 1871 – Vieira explains the loss of the /d/ and argues for the spelling cair.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fall, to fall down; to drop to the ground: Tropeçou no degrau e caiu.^[2][12][1]
2. (of rain, snow etc.) To fall: Caiu granizo toda a tarde.^[2][12]
3. (of night, evening) To come down: cai a noite.^[2][19]
4. To come loose and drop off: As folhas caem no outono.^[2][1]
5. To hang down, reach down to a lower point.^[2][13]
6. To throw oneself down, drop into a place.^[2][20]
7. To die in battle, to fall.^[2][12][1]
8. To lose strength or intensity; to die down.^[2][12]
9. To decrease, lose value: O preço do café caiu.^[2][12][1]
10. (of a law or act) To lapse, become void.^[2]
11. To be removed from power; to be overthrown.^[2][1]
12. To be taken in, fall for a trick.^[2][14]
13. To fall to someone by lot, chance or duty: A tarefa caiu ao irmão mais novo.^[2][14]
14. To fall on a date: O Natal cai num domingo.^[13][1]
15. (with bem or mal) To suit or not;^[1][12][14] (of food) to agree or disagree with one.^[1][12][14]
16. To become, with an adjective: cair doente.^[2]
17. (of a call or connection) To drop, be cut off.^[1][14]

Word family

• caído
• caimento
• decaído
• decaimento
• decair
• descaída
• descaído
• descaimento
• descair
• queda
• recaída
• recair
• caída

Related words

• cadência
• decadência
• decadente
• Latin cadō
• Galician caer

Usage notes

Common phrases include cair em si “to realise one's mistake”, cair fora “to clear off”, cair bem “to please, suit” and cair como uma luva “to fit like a glove”.^[14][1] The infinitive is also used as a noun, o cair “the act of falling”.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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 q r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cair
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cair
4. ^ a b c 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. s.v. cair
5. ^ a b c d 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, 31
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 734
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. cair
10. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 87
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cair
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cair
13. ^ a b c 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. cair
14. ^ a b c d e f g Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1648
15. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. cair
16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. cair
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cair
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cair
19. ^ 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. cair
20. ^ 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. cair
21. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cair