chover

Forms

chover (first-person singular present chovo, first-person singular preterite chovi, past participle chovido)^[1] Old forms are chouer (1262), chover (13th century) and chouuer (15th century).^[2] Wiktionary lists the dialect forms chouver and chuver.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *plovō (“to rain”), written Old Galician-Portuguese chover in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] The Vulgar Latin verb replaced the classical Latin pluō (“to rain”).^[4][5][1] Nascentes notes that the Vulgar Latin form appears in the Satyricon of Petronius.^[6] Corominas adds that it is also found in archaic Latin, though its explanation is uncertain.^[5] Vieira derived the verb from the classical one, influenced by the noun chuva.^[7]

The same Latin verb is Galician chover, Spanish llover, Catalan ploure, French pleuvoir, Italian piovere and Romanian ploua.^[8][1]

The Latin verb goes back to *plowō, from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to flow, float, swim”), with the “floating” sense applied to pouring rain; cognates include Ancient Greek πλύνω (plúnō, “to wash”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology has a document of 1262 with se chouia, se fassia enxouto “whether it rained or was dry”, and Houaiss dates the form chouer to the same year from Cunha's index.^[10][2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have quando faz / mui grandes torvões e que quer chover “when there is great thunder and it is about to rain” and fez en Xerez chover “made it rain in Jerez”.^[10] The sense is the plain one, “to rain”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) has chover pedras “to rain stones”, rendered with Latin pluere lapidibus.^[11] Morais records poetic and figurative uses: Jupiter chovendo “sending rain”, and God who choverá punishments on the wicked.^[12] The modern dictionaries give “to fall in great quantity, like rain” and “to come in abundance”, as of letters, gifts or blows, and the transitive “to shower (something) on”.^[2][4]

Set phrases include chover a cântaros “to rain buckets” and chover no molhado “to do something useless”.^[13][14] Kabuverdianu has txobe from the Portuguese verb.^[1]

Timeline

• 1262 – se chouia in a document;^[10][2] Houaiss's form chouer.^[10][2]
• 13th century – quer chover in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[10]
• 15th century – the spelling chouuer.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists chover pedras.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau: “water falling from the sky”, with chove na casa “the house lets in the rain”.^[15]
• 1813 – Morais records figurative and transitive uses.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (impersonal) To rain, of rain to fall: choveu toda a manhã na serra.^[2][4][1]
2. To fall from above like rain: choveu granizo sobre os campos.^[2][4][1]
3. (figurative) To come in great numbers, one after another: choveram queixas na redação.^[2][4][1]
4. (figurative) To pour or spread (light and the like) over something.^[2]
5. (transitive) To shower someone with something, to give in abundance.^[2][1]

Related words

• chuva
• chuvisco
• pluvial
• Latin pluō
• Galician chover
• Spanish llover

Usage notes

In its literal sense the verb is impersonal and used only in the third person singular (chove, choveu); in figurative senses it takes a subject and is conjugated in full.^[4][2]

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 i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. chover
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. chuva
4. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. chover
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 733
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 115
7. ^ 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, 218
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6610
9. ^ 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 d e f 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. chover
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. chover
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 392
13. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2053
14. ^ 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. chover
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. chover