crescer

Forms

crescer (first-person singular present cresço, first-person singular preterite cresci, past participle crescido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote crecer, creçer and cresçer;^[2][3][4][5] Houaiss adds creescer from the 14th century.^[2][3][4][5] Crecer remained the usual spelling until the 18th century: Cardoso, Barbosa, Pereira and Bluteau head the word so, and Morais in 1789 notes that the etymology calls for crescer.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crēscō (“to come into being; to grow”), written Old Galician-Portuguese crecer in the oldest texts.^[4][5][1] Nascentes explains the modern form as the old form remade on the Latin spelling.^[11] The same Latin word is Galician crecer, Spanish crecer, Catalan créixer, Italian crescere and Romanian crește.^[12][1]

The Latin verb is an inchoative in -scō from the root of creō (“to create”).^[13][1] It goes back to *krēskō and *ḱreh₁- (“to grow, become bigger”).^[1][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology dates crecer to 1265, against Machado's 17th-century date for crescer, and quotes the Galician General Estoria: cresçede et multiplicade “grow and multiply”.^[3] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the verb is used of the sea rising (o mar creçeu), of usury growing and of fear or anger welling up in someone (tan gran pavor lle creceu).^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb meant growing in height, volume or number, and of feelings growing stronger; the cantigas d'amigo also use it for “to arise, result”.^[2] The chronicles speak of honour and followers growing day by day.^[15] Folqman in 1755 lists its use for children growing up, rumours spreading, the wind rising and letting one's beard grow.^[16]

Modern dictionaries add growing in importance or quality, dough rising, and in Portugal two senses of its own: “to be left over” and “to go for someone threateningly”.^[4][17][18] The verb passed into Macanese as crecê.^[1]

Timeline

• 1265 – crecer; the General Estoria has cresçede et multiplicade.^[3]
• 13th century – crescer and creçer in Houaiss;^[4][2] o mar creçeu in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][2]
• 14th century – the spelling creescer.^[4]
• c. 1430 – crecer in the Horto do Esposo.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso heads the verb Crecer.^[6]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau heads it crecer and refers crescer to it.^[9][20]
• 1789 – Morais heads it crecer but notes that the etymology calls for crescer.^[10]
• 1871 – Vieira heads the verb crescer.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To grow: to become bigger or taller in the course of development, of people, animals and plants.^[4][22][1]
2. (intransitive) To grow up, to become older and more mature.^[4][22][1]
3. (intransitive) To increase in size, volume or length: o rio cresceu com a chuva.^[4][23]
4. (intransitive) To increase in number or quantity; to multiply.^[4][23][1]
5. (intransitive) To grow stronger or more intense.^[4][23]
6. To grow in importance, standing or quality: cresceu muito na profissão.^[24][1]
7. (Portugal) To be left over.^[17][18]
8. (Portugal) To go for someone in a threatening way.^[17][18]

Word family

• crescimento
• crescido
• crescença

Related words

• crescente
• acrescer
• acrescentar
• decrescer
• recrescer
• acréscimo
• Latin crēscō
• Spanish crecer

Usage notes

Crescer água na boca is “to make one's mouth water”.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. crecer
3. ^ a b c d 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. cresçer
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. crescer
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. crescer
6. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. crecer
7. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. crecer
8. ^ 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. crecer
9. ^ 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. crecer
10. ^ a b 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, 346
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. crescer
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. crescere
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. crescō
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ 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. creçer
16. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. crescer
17. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. crescer
18. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2562
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. crecer
20. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. crescer
21. ^ 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, 634
22. ^ 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. crescer
23. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. crescer
24. ^ 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. crescer