cessar

Forms

cessar (first-person singular present cesso, first-person singular preterite cessei, past participle cessado)^[1] The oldest texts write cesar and cessar; the 15th century also has çeçar and sesar.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cessō (“to hold back, desist, rest”), first recorded in 1344.^[2][1] Houaiss, Nascentes and Vieira simply derive it from the Latin verb.^[2][4][5] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing.^[1] Corominas likewise treats the Spanish verb as taken from Latin.^[6]

The Latin verb is the frequentative of cēdō (“to go, withdraw, give way”).^[2][7] De Vaan takes the frequentative, and the adverb necesse, as evidence that “to give way, desist” was the original meaning of the base verb, which he traces to Proto-Indo-European *ḱiesdʰ- (“to drive away; go away”), with cognates in Sanskrit and Avestan.^[7]

The same Latin verb gave Galician cesar, Spanish cesar, Catalan cessar, French cesser and Italian cessare.^[4][8][1] Corominas thinks the Spanish cejar (“to back away, give way”) comes from a Vulgar Latin derivative *cessiō of the same family.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Crónica Geral de Espanha of 1344 has despois que cesaron delle “after they ceased from it”, in the sense “to stop doing something”.^[3][2] Other 14th-century texts already use the intransitive sense “to come to an end”: the Rule of Saint Benedict says that the punishment of sin deve cessar “must cease”, and the Demanda do Santo Graal says that on the fifth day Lancelot cessou, meaning that he died.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept the senses “to come to an end” and “to stop doing something” throughout its history: Bluteau defines it as leaving off a work in progress and notes that it takes an infinitive, and Morais gives cessou de escrever “he stopped writing” and cessou a chuva “the rain stopped”.^[10][11] Vieira quotes Fernão Lopes for cessou de lha mais requerer “he stopped asking it of him”.^[5] The old Caldas Aulete records the adverbial phrase sem cessar “ceaselessly”, and Porto Editora the compound cessar-fogo “ceasefire”.^[12][13] Today the verb is formal in tone, beside the everyday parar and acabar.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1344 – the Crónica Geral de Espanha writes cesaron.^[3][2]
• 14th century – the spelling cessar.^[2]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) uses the verb.^[16]
• 15th century – the spellings çeçar and sesar.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary translates it with Latin cesso and desisto.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it and discusses its construction with an infinitive.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais gives cessou a chuva “the rain stopped”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To come to an end; to stop happening or existing: A febre cessou ao fim de dois dias.^[2][18][1]
2. (transitive) To bring to an end; to interrupt or suspend an activity.^[2][18]
3. (with de and an infinitive) To stop doing something; to desist: Não cessava de perguntar pelo filho.^[18][19]
4. (with com) To give up or drop something: to stop protests, demands or the like.^[2]
5. Of the weather, to stop raining or blowing.^[18]

Word family

• cessar-fogo

Related words

• cessação
• incessante
• ceder
• Galician cesar

Usage notes

Sem cessar “without ceasing, continuously” is a fixed adverbial phrase.^[19][13] Priberam warns against confusing the verb with sessar “to sift”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cessar
3. ^ a b c d 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. çessar
4. ^ 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. 110
5. ^ 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, 182
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cesar
7. ^ 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
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cessare
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 17
10. ^ 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. cessar
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 378
12. ^ 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. cessar
13. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1977
14. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. cessar
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cessar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cessar
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cessar
18. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cessar
19. ^ a b 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. cessar