comportar

Forms

comportar (first-person singular present comporto, first-person singular preterite comportei, past participle comportado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin comportō (“to carry together, bring together”), a learned word.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin verb is formed from con- and portō (“to carry”).^[5][1]

The same Latin word was taken into Spanish comportar, Catalan comportar, Italian comportare and French comporter, mostly with the sense “to bear, tolerate”.^[6][1] In French the sense “to behave”, in the reflexive, developed in the late Middle Ages.^[7] Cunha takes the Portuguese derivative comportamento from French comportement.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 15th century, with the spellings comportar and conportar.^[2][3] Lorenzo's chronology quotes it from the Ensinança of horsemanship, on a saddle that must be neither too long nor too short, since in a short one the rider cannot sit well (na curta se nom pode bem comportar).^[9] A document of 1479 has este dito vjño que nos lo conportedes ẽna vosa adega, of wine to be kept in a cellar.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the dictionaries give the verb the sense “to bear patiently, tolerate”, translating it by Latin tolero and patior.^[10][11] Bluteau sends the reader to sofrer and tolerar.^[12] Morais in 1789 has “to bear costs or pains”, and in 1813 adds the reflexive comportar-se “to behave”, which he marks as a modern usage.^[13][14] Vieira records the sense “to allow, admit, coexist with”, as in a science that does not admit different methods.^[15]

Today the transitive verb means “to allow, admit”, “to contain, hold” and “to entail”, and the reflexive comportar-se “to behave”, said of people, animals and machines.^[2][16]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records, as comportar and conportar.^[2][3]
• 1479 – conportedes in a document quoted by Lorenzo.^[9]
• 1534 – first record of comportamento.^[17]
• c. 1538 – first record of incomportável.^[3]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses comportar as “to suffer with patience”.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais records comportar-se “to behave” as a modern usage.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To allow, admit: O orçamento não comporta novas despesas.^[2][18][1]
2. (transitive) To contain or be able to hold: A sala comporta duzentas pessoas.^[2][19][1]
3. (transitive) To require, demand.^[2]
4. (transitive) To entail, bring as a consequence.^[2][19]
5. (transitive) To bear, tolerate, suffer.^[18][20][1]
6. (pronominal) To behave in a given way: Comportou-se com muita calma.^[2][18][1]
7. (pronominal) To behave well, as expected: Comportem-se, meninos!^[2][18][1]
8. (pronominal) To react in a certain way, said of an animal, a material or a machine.^[2][16]

Word family

• comportamento
• incomportável
• bem-comportado

Related words

• portar
• suportar
• Latin comportō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. comportar
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. comportar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. comportar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. comportō
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2104
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. comporter
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. comportamento
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. comportar
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. comportar
11. ^ 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. comportar
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. comportar
13. ^ 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, 298
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 429
15. ^ 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, 354
16. ^ 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. comportar
17. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. comportamento
18. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. comportar
19. ^ 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. comportar
20. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. comportar