cavar

Forms

cavar (first-person singular present cavo, first-person singular preterite cavei, past participle cavado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cavō (“to make hollow, hollow out”), recorded in Portuguese from 1272 and spelt Old Galician-Portuguese cauar in the 14th century.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician cavar, Spanish cavar, Catalan cavar, Occitan cavar, Italian cavare and Old French chever.^[5][6] In Spanish it is first recorded in the early 13th century, in Berceo.^[7]

The Latin verb is formed from the adjective cavus (“hollow”).^[8][9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kawo- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱouH-ó- (“hollow”), with cognates in Celtic and in a Greek gloss word for “hollows”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria already use it in its present sense: men dig out a grave (Como cavaron a cova), go to dig the vineyards (yan cavar as vỹas), or dig earth for the Virgin's church (omees que cavavan terra pera sa ygreja).^[10] The Crónica Troiana uses it of bulls pawing the ground with their hooves (começarõ a cavar a terra cõ os pees, cõmo he natura dos touros).^[10]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712) glosses it as breaking up the earth with a hoe, and lists cavar hum pôço “to dig a well” and cavar os olhos a alguem “to gouge out someone's eyes”.^[11] Morais (1789) adds figurative senses: “to work hard to acquire” something and “to work with the mind”.^[12] Later dictionaries add hollowing out a surface, extracting ore by digging, and, in tailoring, cutting out the armhole of a garment.^[2][13]

Figuratively it came to mean furrowing the face with wrinkles, as grief or illness does, and striving to obtain a post or advantage.^[2][14] Informal Brazilian Portuguese uses it for struggling to earn a living and for running off in fear; in Portugal cavar or pôr-se a cavar means to clear off.^[2][15][16]

Timeline

• 1272 – first record of the verb.^[2]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use cavar for digging graves, vineyards and earth.^[10][3]
• 14th century – spelt cauar.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary renders it with Latin fodio and lists cavar vinhas “to dig vineyards”.^[17]
• 1712 – Bluteau records cavar hum pôço and cavar os olhos a alguem.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais gives the figurative senses “to work to acquire” and “to think hard”.^[12]
• 1899 – Figueiredo adds “to search, investigate” and the tailoring sense.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dig: to turn over or break up the ground, or make a hole in it, with a hoe (enxada), pick or the hands: Os rapazes cavaram a horta toda a manhã.^[2][18][1]
2. To make (a grave, trench, tunnel) by digging.^[2][18]
3. To hollow out; to open a furrow, hole or cavity in: cavar um tronco para fazer uma canoa.^[2][18]
4. To extract (especially ore) by digging.^[2][14]
5. (tailoring) To cut or widen the armhole or neckline of (a garment).^[2][15]
6. (figurative) To furrow with wrinkles; to make (the face) gaunt: A doença cavou-lhe o rosto.^[2][14]
7. (figurative) To strive to obtain (a job, an advantage), sometimes by dubious means.^[2][16]
8. (figurative) To dig into, investigate.^[2][13]
9. (Brazil, informal) To struggle to get ahead or make a living.^[2]
10. (informal) To run off, clear out.^[2][15][16]

Word family

• cavadela
• escavar
• socavar

Related words

• cavador
• cavadura
• caverna
• Latin cavus
• Spanish cavar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cavar
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cavar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 105
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1788
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cavare
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 929
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cauō
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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. cavar
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. cavar
12. ^ 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, 248
13. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 270
14. ^ 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. cavar
15. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1915
16. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cavar
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cavar
18. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cavar