conhecer

Forms

conhecer (first-person singular present conheço, first-person singular preterite conheci, past participle conhecido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote connocer, connosçer and conhocer in the 13th century, with conoscer in 1277 and cognoscer in 1278;^[2][3] conhecer and cõhoçer appear in the 14th century and cogescer in the 15th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cognōscō (“to get to know”), first as Old Galician-Portuguese conhocer and Old Galician-Portuguese connocer; the present form appears in the 14th century.^[2][3][1] Latin ⟨gn⟩ became ⟨nh⟩: Corominas notes that most Romance languages continue a Late Latin cōnōscō, reshaped after the simple verb, and that Portuguese is almost alone, with Engadine and a few Alpine dialects of Italy, in keeping a trace of the ⟨gn⟩.^[4]

The change of the second vowel from /o/ to /e/ is explained by Houaiss as a dissimilation of the two /o/ sounds, helped by the verbs in -ecer, and Nascentes also invokes that suffix.^[2][5] Carolina Michaëlis saw in it the analogy of inchoatives from Latin -escere such as padecer, parecer and guarnecer.^[6] Corominas lists the same change of ending in Catalan and in Moroccan Judaeo-Spanish.^[4]

The same Latin word is Galician coñecer, Spanish conocer, Catalan conèixer, French connaître, Italian conoscere and Romanian cunoaște.^[7][1] The Latin verb is con- added to nōscō (“to get to know”),^[8][1] and the simple verb, older gnōscō, goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is the participle conocido in 1254, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] In the troubadour songs the verb means “to know”, “to recognise” and “to come to one's senses”;^[6][10] Estevan da Guarda writes of un corretor a que vi / vender panos, que conhoci “a broker I saw selling cloth, whom I recognised”.^[6][10] The infinitive was also a noun, “judgement, opinion”: quant'é meu conhocer “as far as I can judge”, and a man sen conhocer was a fool.^[6][10]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense of a judge hearing a case, conhecer de uma causa, is in Folqman's dictionary of 1755.^[11] Morais (1813) begins with “to perceive with the mind” and records conhecer a mercê a alguém “to acknowledge a favour, be grateful”.^[12] The biblical sense “to have sexual relations with” is now dated; in rural Portugal in the 1940s the verb was avoided with women for that reason.^[13][14] Modern senses include “to meet for the first time”, “to visit a place” and “to go through, experience”.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1254 – conocido, the first record.^[2]
• 1277 – conoscer; 1278 – cognoscer.^[2]
• 13th century – conhocer and connocer in the troubadour songs; first record of conhecença.^[2][3][6]
• 14th century – the form conhecer; first record of conhecedor.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo uses the verb.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it by Latin cognosco and agnosco.^[16]
• 1755 – Folqman records the legal sense.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais defines “to perceive with the mind”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To know, have knowledge or information of: Conhece bem a história da cidade.^[2][17][1]
2. To be acquainted with (a person): Conheço-o desde a escola.^[2][1]
3. To meet for the first time, get to know: Conheci a tua irmã na festa.^[2][1]
4. To visit (a place) for the first time: Quero conhecer o Japão.^[2][1]
5. To be familiar with, master (a subject or language).^[2][18]
6. To recognise, tell apart.^[19][13]
7. To go through, experience: A região conheceu anos de seca.^[2]
8. (law, with de) To hear, take cognisance of (a case).^[1][11]
9. (pronominal) To know oneself, one's own worth.^[19]
10. (archaic) To have sexual relations with.^[1][13]

Word family

• conhecedor
• conhecença
• conhecido
• conhecimento
• conhecível
• desconhecer
• reconhecer

Related words

• cognição
• Latin cognōscō
• Galician coñecer
• Spanish conocer

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 n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. conhecer
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. conhecer
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 176
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. conhecer
6. ^ 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. conhocer
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cognoscō
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 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. conhocer
11. ^ a b c Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. conhecer
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 446
13. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2345
14. ^ 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. conhecer
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. conhecer
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. conhecer
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. conhecer
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. conhecer
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. conhecer