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cobrar

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word cobrar

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1200s the cantigas More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Latin recupero

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /koˈbɾa(ʁ)/, [koˈbɾa(h)][1]
  • São-Paulo: /koˈbɾa(ɾ)/[1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /koˈbɾa(ʁ)/, [koˈbɾa(χ)][1]
  • Caipira: /koˈbɾa(ɻ)/[1]

Forms

cobrar (first-person singular present cobro, first-person singular preterite cobrei, past participle cobrado)[1] Old spellings are cõbrar (13th century) and quobrar (15th century).[2]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Portuguese recobrar, which lost its first syllable, according to Houaiss, Cunha, Nascentes and Aurélio.[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary puts the shortening in Vulgar Latin: Old Galician-Portuguese cobrar is from Vulgar Latin *cuperō (“to take, seize”), a back-formation from Latin recuperō (“to recover, regain”), which also gave the longer Portuguese verb.[1] Vieira and Figueiredo also started from that shorter Latin verb, known only in the compound.[6][7] Bluteau derived it from the same verb and that from Latin cuprum (“copper”), copper having been the best money of old.[8] Nascentes rejects Pacheco and Lameira's derivation from cooperor as unlikely in sense.[9]

Spanish cobrar was extracted from recobrar in the same way, by about 1140.[10][2] The learned doublet is recuperar.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha and Houaiss date the verb to the 13th century.[3][2] In the cantigas it means “to recover, regain” (nem cobrarei o que perdi, “nor shall I recover what I lost”), “to obtain”, and “to receive in payment”.[11][12] The Crónica Troiana also uses it for recovering one's strength.[13]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) and Pereira (1697) gloss it with Latin recipio and recupero.[14][15] Bluteau (1712) takes “to receive money” as its natural meaning, and also lists cobrar forças “to recover one's strength”.[8] Feijó (1734) complains that some writers confuse cobrar “to receive money owed” with quebrar “to break”.[16] Morais (1813) puts the sense “to receive money in payment of a debt” first.[17] Modern Brazilian Portuguese has added “to demand that a promise be kept” and, in sport, “to take” a free kick or a corner.[2][5]

Timeline

  • 13th century – first records, in the cantigas.[3][2][11]
  • c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).[18]
  • 15th century – the spelling quobrar.[2]
  • 1569 – Cardoso glosses it recipio and recupero.[14]
  • 1712 – Bluteau gives “to receive money” as its natural sense.[8]
  • 1734 – Feijó distinguishes cobrar from quebrar.[16]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To collect or receive what is owed: cobrar as rendas.[2][5][1]
  2. To charge a price for a good or service: quanto cobra pela consulta?[2][19][1]
  3. To demand that a promise or commitment be kept.[2][5][1]
  4. (pronominal) To pay oneself back, to recoup.[2][20]
  5. To be seized by a feeling; to take on: cobrar coragem.[2][5]
  6. To recover, regain;[2][21] (pronominal) to recover one's strength.[2][21]
  7. To gather in, haul in; of a dog, to retrieve game.[2][19]
  8. (sports) To take a free kick, corner or throw-in.[2][1]

Word family

  • cobrador
  • cobrança
  • recobrar
  • recuperar
  • Latin recupero
  • Spanish cobrar

Usage notes

In several dialect surveys of Portugal cobrar is recorded as a form of quebrar “to break”.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cobrar
  3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. recobrar
  4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. cobrar
  5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cobrar
  6. ^ 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, 258
  7. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 308
  8. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cobrar
  9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 124
  10. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. recobrar
  11. ^ a b Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. cobrar
  12. ^ 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. cobrar
  13. ^ 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. cobrar
  14. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cobrar
  15. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cobrar
  16. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cobrar
  17. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 406
  18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cobrar
  19. ^ a b 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. cobrar
  20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2168
  21. ^ 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. cobrar
  22. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. cobrar
Cite this entry

“Cobrar.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/cobrar. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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