cavalgar

Forms

cavalgar (first-person singular present cavalgo, first-person singular preterite cavalguei, past participle cavalgado)^[1] Houaiss records caualgar in 1262, cabalgar in the 14th century and caualguar in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin caballico (“to ride”), written Old Galician-Portuguese caualgar and Old Galician-Portuguese cavalgar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin verb is formed from caballus (“horse, workhorse”) with the suffix -icō, and is first recorded in the early 6th century, in Anthimus and the Lex Salica.^[4] In Medieval Latin it meant to ride or travel on horseback, and also to serve as a mounted messenger.^[5]

The same verb is Galician cabalgar, Spanish cabalgar, Catalan cavalgar, Old Occitan cavalgar, French chevaucher and Italian cavalcare.^[6][7][1]

The Latin word for the horse is itself a loanword; de Vaan considers its ultimate source unclear.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to 1262, spelt caualgar.^[2] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a man gets down quickly from the horse en que enton cavalgara “on which he had been riding”, and in a cantiga d'escarnho Alfonso X says vi-a cavalgar per ũa aldeia “I saw her riding through a village”.^[9] The medieval lyric also used the verb figuratively for sexual intercourse.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From riding a horse the verb widened to sitting astride anything and to passing over an obstacle.^[2] Folqman (1755) and Morais (1789) record it for mounting a piece of artillery on its carriage, and Morais in 1813 adds climbing a hill or a wall and a boat riding over a sandbank.^[11][12][13] Modern dictionaries add putting on spectacles and figurative senses: seizing an opportunity and steering something hard to manage.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 1262 – first record, spelt caualgar.^[2]
• 13th century – the verb in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and in a cantiga d'escarnho of Alfonso X.^[9][3]
• 14th century – the spelling cabalgar.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it with Latin “to mount a horse”.^[15]
• 1755 – Folqman records cavalgar huma peça de artilharia “to mount a gun on its carriage”.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais adds “to climb over”: cavalgar o muro.^[13]
• 1899 – Figueiredo also lists an obsolete adjective cavalgar, the same as cavallar.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To ride a horse; to travel on horseback: Cavalgámos toda a manhã pela serra.^[2][17][1]
2. To mount (montar) or sit astride something: cavalgar uma mula.^[2][18]
3. To jump or climb over; galgar.^[2][19][1]
4. To put or stand over something as if astride; to put on (spectacles).^[2][14][20]
5. (figurative) To seize an opportunity.^[2]
6. (figurative) To steer or manage something with difficulty.^[2]
7. (vulgar) To have sex in a position astride a partner.^[1]

Word family

• cavalgamento
• encavalgamento
• encavalgar

Related words

• cavalo
• Latin caballus
• Spanish cabalgar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cavalgar
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cavalgar
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. caballico
5. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. caballicare
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1439
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. caballicare
8. ^ 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. cavalgar
10. ^ 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. cavalgar
11. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cavalgar
12. ^ 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, 247
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 364
14. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cavalgar
15. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cavalgar
16. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. cavalgar
17. ^ 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. cavalgar
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. cavalgar
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cavalgar
20. ^ 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. cavalgar