cingir

Forms

cingir (first-person singular present cinjo, first-person singular preterite cingi, past participle cingido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote cinger, cengir and çinger;^[2][3][4] açingir is recorded in the 15th century and acingir in 1770.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cingō (“to gird, surround”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cinger and Old Galician-Portuguese cengir in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes considers the form in -er the archaic one.^[5]

The same Latin verb is Galician cinguir, Spanish ceñir, Catalan cenyir, French ceindre and Italian cingere.^[6][7][1] Cunha compares cinta, and Wiktionary relates the verb to cinto and cintura as well.^[3][1]

The Latin verb may be related to Umbrian śihitu (“girded”), which would point to Proto-Italic *keng-; de Vaan and Wiktionary consider its further etymology uncertain, since the comparison with Lithuanian kinkýti (“to harness”) and Sanskrit कञ्चुक (kañcuka, “armour”) meets phonetic problems.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's earliest record is cantiga 306 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, where a woman wears a belt cengir per cima do ventre “girded over the belly”, as if pregnant.^[9] The cantigas d'amigo and d'escarnho use the word for girding on a belt or a sword: Alfonso X has nunca cinga espada con bõa bainha “let him never gird a sword with a good scabbard”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval texts the word is used of a belt and of girding on a sword, as the Crónica Troiana says of a knight's investiture.^[4][10] Morais (1789) adds cingir a coroa “to put on the crown” and the sense “to come close to”, of a boat drawing alongside.^[11] The sense “to surround, encircle”, of walls or a river around a city, is in Vieira.^[12] Later figurative senses are “to restrain” and, reflexive, “to keep strictly to”.^[2][13]

Timeline

• 13th century – cengir in the Cantigas de Santa Maria;^[9][2][3] Houaiss and Cunha date cengir and cinger to this century.^[9][2][3]
• 1344 – the spelling cingir.^[2]
• 14th century – the spelling çenger.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists Cingir with Latin cingo.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists the derivative cingidouro.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais records cingir a coroa.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To surround, encircle: Um muro alto cingia o convento.^[2][16][1]
2. To bind or fasten around: to tie with a belt or band.^[16][13]
3. To put on round the waist, to gird on: Cingiu o cinturão antes de sair.^[16][1]
4. To put round the head; to crown, adorn round.^[16][13]
5. To press close, to hug.^[17][18]
6. (figurative) To restrain, restrict.^[16][13][1]
7. (reflexive) To keep strictly to; to confine oneself to.^[13][17]
8. (nautical) To sail as close to the wind as possible.^[18]

Word family

• cingidouro

Related words

• cinto
• cinta
• cintura
• Latin cingō
• Spanish ceñir

Usage notes

Cingir a coroa and cingir o diadema mean “to come to the throne”, and cingir a tiara “to be elected Pope”.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. cingir
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cingir
4. ^ 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. cinger
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 119
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1924
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 37
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 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. cengir
10. ^ 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. çingir
11. ^ 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, 273
12. ^ 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, 233
13. ^ a b c d e f Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cingir
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cingir
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cingir
16. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cingir
17. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2095
18. ^ 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. cingir