consagrar

Forms

consagrar (first-person singular present consagro, first-person singular preterite consagrei, past participle consagrado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote consagrar, conssagrar, cõsagrar and consegrar.^[2] Houaiss records consecrar in the 14th century.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cōnsacrō (“to consecrate”), the Late Latin form of cōnsecrō, written Old Galician-Portuguese consagrar in the oldest texts.^[3][4][1][2] Figueiredo analyses the old form as cum and sacrō (“to make sacred”).^[5] The variant Old Galician-Portuguese consegrar of the Crónica Geral manuscripts has the vowel of the classical verb, like Old Spanish and Old Catalan consegrar, which García de Diego derives from the classical verb.^[2][6]

The Late Latin verb is also Spanish consagrar, Italian consacrare and Old Occitan consagrar.^[7] The classical verb is formed from con- and the same verb, from sacer (“sacred, holy”).^[1][8] Latin inscriptions already spell the verb with a.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century have the verb for the Eucharist: an altar en que o corpo de Cristo foi feito e conssagrado “on which the body of Christ was made and consecrated”, and a priest saying Mass consagrando a hostia “consecrating the host”.^[2] The Crónica Geral uses it of churches and bishops: cõsagrou a noua jgleia “he consecrated the new church”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides consecrating bread and wine, churches and bishops, the medieval verb could mean “to swear on the consecrated host”: Viterbo cites a chronicle in which Prince Pedro and the Count of Abrantes consagrárão to die together and then took communion to seal the oath.^[9] Houaiss marks this sense as obsolete.^[3] Bluteau in 1712 has consagrarse a Deos “to devote oneself to God”, and the sense widened to devoting one's life or time to any task.^[10][11] In the modern language it also means to acclaim or to sanction by use: a public may consagrar a singer and a dictionary a new word.^[3][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria write conssagrado and consagrando of the Eucharist.^[2]
• 14th century – the spellings consecrar and cõsagrar.^[3]
• 1513 – consagrar in the Livro dos Mártires.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin dedico and consecro.^[14]
• 1712 – Bluteau lists the consecration of churches, of bread and wine at Mass, and consagrarse a Deos.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais records the old sense “to swear by the host”.^[15]
• 1798 – Viterbo explains that sense in his Elucidário.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (religion) To make sacred; to dedicate a person or thing to a god by a rite; sagrar.^[3][16][1]
2. (Christianity) To consecrate the bread and wine in the Eucharist (eucaristia); (intransitive) to say the words of consecration.^[3][12][17]
3. To offer or devote to God or a saint by a vow: Consagrou a filha a Nossa Senhora.^[3][16]
4. To set aside for a purpose: consagrar metade do tempo ao estudo.^[3][12]
5. (also reflexive) To devote one's life or effort to: Consagrou-se à pintura.^[3][17]
6. To acclaim, raise to fame or to a title: O filme consagrou o realizador.^[3][16][12]
7. To sanction, accept as legitimate: O uso consagrou a palavra.^[3][12][1]
8. (obsolete) To swear by the consecrated host.^[3][9]

Word family

• consagração
• consagrado

Related words

• sagrar
• sagrado
• Latin cōnsecrō
• Spanish consagrar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. consagrar
3. ^ 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. consagrar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. consagrar
5. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. consagrar
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. consecrare
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2155
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. consecrō
9. ^ a b c Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 27
10. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. consagrar
11. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 449
12. ^ a b c d e 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. consagrar
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. consagrar
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. consagrar
15. ^ 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, 312
16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. consagrar
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. consagrar