crer

Forms

crer (first-person singular present creio, first-person singular preterite cri, past participle crido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had creer, with the preterite crive, the subjunctives crevesse and crever and the past participles creudo and criudo.^[2] The contracted infinitive crer and the present creio (for older creo) appear in the 15th century.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crēdō (“to believe, to trust”), written Old Galician-Portuguese creer in the oldest texts.^[3][4][1][5] Houaiss derives it through a Vulgar Latin infinitive stressed on its second syllable; the two vowels of the old form were later contracted.^[3][4]

The same Latin verb is Galician crer, Spanish creer, Catalan creure, French croire, Italian credere and Romanian crede.^[1][6]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *krezðō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱred-dʰeh₁- (“to place one's heart, to trust”), a phrase made of a case form of *ḱḗr (“heart”) and *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).^[7][8] Its cognates include Old Irish creitid (“believes”) and Sanskrit श्रद्दधाति (śraddadhāti, “to trust, to believe”).^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated records are in Galician notarial documents: o que eu creo que se Deus quiser in 1270 and o que eu creo que nunca seera “which I believe will never be” in 1274.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have it in the religious sense: log'a judea criya “at once the Jewish woman believed”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The medieval language construed it as creer de (someone) “to believe what someone says” and creer per “to believe by”.^[2] Houaiss records as obsolete the pronominal crer-se de “to trust in”.^[3] Bluteau defines it as holding something for certain.^[9] Aulete adds the intransitive “to have faith”, especially religious faith.^[10]

The learned words of the same Latin root came later: crédito in the 15th century and credo, the prayer named from its first Latin word, in 1570.^[4] Portuguese also has em um credo “in a moment”.^[11]

Timeline

• 1270 – creo in a Galician notarial document, and again in 1274.^[2]
• 13th century – creer and its forms in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the present creyo.^[3]
• 15th century – the contracted infinitive crer and the present creio.^[3][4]
• c. 1510 – crer in the Vida de Santo Agostinho (witness 1480–1510).^[12]
• 1541 – a private letter writes creo.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Crer as credo.^[14]
• 1570 – first record of credo for the prayer.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To believe, to hold as true: Não creio numa palavra do que ele disse.^[3][15][1]
2. To believe (someone), to trust their words: Crê-me, eu estava lá.^[3][15][16]
3. (with em) To have faith in, to believe in: Ela crê na bondade das pessoas.^[3][15]
4. To think, to suppose: Creio que vai chover.^[3][15][17]
5. (with a predicative) To consider, to deem: Crê-se capaz de tudo.^[3][15]
6. (intransitive, religion) To have faith.^[3][16][17]

Word family

• crença
• crente
• crendice
• crendeiro
• descrer

Related words

• acreditar
• crédito
• credo
• crédulo
• crível
• Latin crēdō
• Galician crer
• Spanish creer

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 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. creer
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. crer
4. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. crer
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. crer
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. creer
7. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. credo
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
10. ^ 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. crer
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. crer
13. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. crer
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
15. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. crer
16. ^ 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. crer
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. crer