cortar

Forms

cortar (first-person singular present corto, first-person singular preterite cortei, past participle cortado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin curtō (“to shorten, cut short”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cortar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin verb is formed from the adjective curtus (“short; mutilated”), and it was rare in the classical language.^[4][5] Medieval Latin used it for cutting off and for encroaching on another's property.^[6]

The simple Latin verb lives on only in Galician cortar, Spanish cortar and Asturian curtar; other languages continue it in compounds, such as Romanian scurta, French écourter and Old Occitan escortar.^[7][8]

De Vaan reconstructs the adjective as Proto-Italic *korto-, from Proto-Indo-European *kr-to- (“cut off”), with the change of /or/ to /ur/ before a consonant; he compares Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “to cut off, shave”) and Old High German sceran (“to shave, cut off”).^[9] Wiktionary relates it to the English word short.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology places the first Galician-Portuguese record in the Cantigas de Santa Maria; a Latin charter of 1258 already has the verb in cortare madeiram “to cut timber”.^[11] The cantigas use it of maiming: cortou o pee “he cut off his foot”, sacaron-lle os ollos e cortaron-lle as mãos “they put out his eyes and cut off his hands”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Galician Crónica Troiana uses the verb both for cutting off a limb and, intransitively, for slandering someone behind his back.^[11] In the satirical cantigas it also means “to castrate”.^[12] Cardoso's dictionary (1569) renders it with Latin recido and seco, and Bluteau defines it as dividing a body with something that cuts.^[13][14] Morais in 1789 adds figurative senses: a bird cuts the air, a ship the sea, and grief cuts the heart.^[15] Vieira's dictionary quotes Fernão Lopes's chronicle of Peter I for mandou cortar a cabeça “he had the head cut off”.^[16]

From the 19th century the dictionaries record a slang cortar-se “to steal”.^[17][18] Today the verb also means to interrupt a supply or a speech, to give something up and to take a short cut.^[2] In north-eastern Brazil cortar someone is to refuse him a dance, and in Rio Grande do Sul it is used for separating cattle and cutting a pack of cards.^[19][20]

Timeline

• 1258 – a Latin charter has cortare madeiram.^[11]
• 13th century – cortou o pee in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[11][3]
• 14th century – first record of cortador.^[3]
• c. 1430 – cortar in the Horto do Esposo (manuscript 1390–1437).^[21]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records the figurative senses.^[15]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records slang cortar-se “to steal”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut, divide into parts with a blade or with the hands: cortou a laranja ao meio.^[2][1]
2. To cut off (a part from a whole); (tailoring) to cut out (cloth) to a pattern.^[2]
3. (intransitive) To have a sharp edge, to cut well.^[2]
4. To trim (nails, hair, grass).^[2]
5. To remove, suppress (part of a text, a scene).^[2]
6. (transitive and pronominal) To wound (oneself) with something sharp.^[2]
7. To furrow, cleave (a surface, the water): o barco cortava o rio.^[2][15]
8. To interrupt, cut off (a supply, a speech): cortaram-nos o gás.^[2][1]
9. To stop (a fever, sleep); to give up (sugar, tobacco).^[2]
10. (figurative) To cross (a road, a field); to shorten (a way).^[2]
11. (figurative) To pierce with grief, afflict: cortar o coração.^[2][15]
12. To leave (someone) out, exclude.^[2]
13. (north-eastern Brazil) To turn down (a dance partner).^[19]
14. (card games) To cut (the pack).^[20]

Word family

• corte
• cortador
• recortar
• entrecortar

Related words

• curto
• encurtar
• Galician cortar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cortar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cortar
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. curtō
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. curto
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. curtare
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2418
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. curtare
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. curtus
10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. curtus
11. ^ 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. cortar
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. cortar
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cortar
14. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cortar
15. ^ a b c d 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, 337
16. ^ 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, 557
17. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. cortar
18. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. cortar
19. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. cortar
20. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. 1, s.v. cortar
21. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cortar