cear

Forms

cear (first-person singular present ceio, first-person singular preterite ceei, past participle ceado)^[1] The 13th-century cantigas write cẽar beside cear;^[2][3][4] Houaiss records çeear in the 15th century and seyar in 1683.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cēnō (“to dine”) written Old Galician-Portuguese cẽar in the oldest texts.^[4][3][1] The Latin verb is formed from cēna (“dinner”), the source of ceia.^[5][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician cear, Spanish cenar, Catalan cenar, Asturian ciar, Italian cenare and Romanian cina.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cantiga has a speaker who has not dined well for a long time: ca muit'á que ben non ceei “for it is long since I dined well”, and then, having found a salmon, querrei oj'eu mui ben cẽar “today I mean to dine very well”.^[2] The Galician Crónica Troiana has conuidarlos ey que ceem conmigo “I shall invite them to dine with me”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The verb has always meant to eat the evening meal, the ceia.^[4][3] Bluteau (1712) defines it as taking the meal of the night and records proverbs such as quem a mão alheia espera, mal janta e pior ceia “who waits on another's hand dines badly and sups worse”.^[8] Vieira (1871) adds se mal jantas, pior ceias, minguam-te as carnes, crescem-te as veias.^[9] Modern European usage defines the ceia as a light meal taken between dinner and bedtime.^[10]

Timeline

• 13th century – cẽar and ceei in the cantigas.^[2][3]
• 1344 – cear.^[4]
• 15th century – the spelling çeear.^[4]
• 1525 – the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana.^[11]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses cear with Latin coeno and cenito.^[12]
• 1683 – the spelling seyar.^[4]
• 1712 – Bluteau: to take the evening meal, with proverbs.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To have supper (ceia), the last meal of the day, taken in the evening or late at night.^{[4][10][13][1]}
2. (transitive) To eat (something) at supper: Ceámos peixe grelhado e salada.^[4][14][15]

Related words

• ceia
• Galician cear
• Spanish cenar

Usage notes

The cantigas also have a separate verb cear “to be jealous of”, from Latin zēlō.^[16][1][7]

Galician cear also means “to back up” (of oxen pulling a cart), the same as Portuguese ciar “to row backwards”, a seafaring word of uncertain, pre-Islamic origin according to Corriente.^[17]

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 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. cear
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. ceia
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cear
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cēnō
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cenare
7. ^ 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. cear
8. ^ 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. cear
9. ^ 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, 158
10. ^ a b 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. cear
11. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cear
12. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cear
13. ^ 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. cear
14. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cear
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cear
16. ^ 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. cear2
17. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 279