chamar

Forms

chamar (first-person singular present chamo, first-person singular preterite chamei, past participle chamado)^[1] Houaiss records the variant chomar in the 14th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin clāmō (“to shout, cry out”), written Old Galician-Portuguese chamar from the first records.^[2][3][1][4] Houaiss calls it the popular form of the Latin verb; clamar is the learned doublet.^[2][1] The Latin ⟨cl⟩ at the start of the word became ⟨ch⟩, as in chave from clāvis.^[5] Vieira also rejected Cardinal Saraiva's derivation of the word from Hebrew.^[5]

The same Latin word is Galician chamar, Spanish llamar, Catalan clamar, Old French clamer, Italian chiamare and Romanian chema.^[6][1][7]

De Vaan takes the Latin verb to be derived from a noun meaning “shout”, later replaced by clāmor, and reconstructs Proto-Italic *klāmo- and Proto-Indo-European *klh₁-mo-, of the same family as calō (“to call out”).^[8] Wiktionary gives the root as *kelh₁- (“to shout”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology finds the verb in a property record of 1192–1193: en uu casal de Carapezus que chamam da Vluar “in a farmstead at Carapezus that they call da Vluar”; a text of 1261 has depoys chamaron aqueles “afterwards they called those”.^[9] Houaiss's own first date is 1278.^[2] In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda the verb means “to name, to call (someone something)”, “to say someone's name so that they come” and “to invoke”, as in chamar Deus.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval senses “to name”, “to summon” and “to call on, invoke” are still the main ones.^[9][2] The cantigas also use it for “to shout” and, reflexively, for “to be called” and “to consider oneself”.^[10] Barbosa in 1611 rendered it by Latin voco, appello, accerso and nuncupo.^[11] Morais in 1789 adds “to draw, pull” (the wind and the water drew the ship to land) and “to attract”.^[12] Later senses include “to wake (someone)”, “to call the roll” and “to appoint to a post”.^[13][14]

The noun chamada, in the sense of a drum signal of surrender, passed into French as chamade.^[6] The verb survives in Guinea-Bissau Creole as tcama and in Macanese as chomâ.^[1]

Timeline

• 1192–1193 – que chamam da Vluar in a property record.^[9]
• 1261 – depoys chamaron aqueles.^[9]
• 1266 – first record of chamamento.^[15]
• 1278 – Houaiss's first date for the verb, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2]
• 13th century – chamado “a call” is first recorded.^[3]
• 14th century – the variant chomar.^[2]
• c. 1400 – first in the CTA corpus, in a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum (witness 1380–1425).^[16]
• 1789 – Morais gives the senses “to draw” and “to attract”.^[12]
• 1813 – first record of chamariz “decoy, lure”.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira explains ⟨cl⟩ > ⟨ch⟩ by the parallel of chave.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To call someone's name so that they come; to summon: Chamou o cão para dentro de casa.^[2][13][1]
2. To send for, have (someone) come: chamar um médico.^[17][18]
3. To call out the names of a group, to call the roll.^[14][19]
4. To give a name to; to name: Chamaram ao filho Pedro.^[20][1]
5. To call (someone something), often as an insult: chamar alguém de mentiroso;^[1][14] chamar nomes, to insult.^[1][14]
6. To attract, draw: chamar a atenção.^[14][19]
7. To wake (someone).^[13]
8. To invoke;^[14][19] (intransitive) to call for help: chamar por socorro.^[14][19]
9. To choose for a post, appoint.^[14][21]
10. chamar-se: to be called, have as one's name: Como se chama a tua rua?^[1][14]

Word family

• chamada
• chamado
• chamador
• chamamento
• chamariz
• chamativo

Related words

• clamar
• clamor
• Latin clāmō
• Spanish llamar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. chamar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. chamar
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. 111
5. ^ a b c 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, 189
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1961
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. clamare
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 c d e 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. chamar
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. chamar
11. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. chamar
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, 260
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. chamar
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. chamar
15. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. chamamento
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. chamar
17. ^ 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. chamar
18. ^ 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. chamar
19. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1993
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. chamar
21. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 282