custar

Forms

custar (first-person singular present custo, first-person singular preterite custei, past participle custado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote both custar and costar.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cōstāre, from cōnstō (“to stand firm; to be established; to cost”), written Old Galician-Portuguese custar and Old Galician-Portuguese costar in the oldest texts.^[2][1] The Latin verb is formed from con- (“together”) and stō (“to stand”), from Proto-Italic *komstaēō.^[1] Houaiss notes that the sense “to have a price” is common to the Romance languages and seems to come from the Latin verb's use for what is known to be the case, completed by a statement of value or price.^[2] The learned constar goes back to the same Latin word.^[2][1]

The same Latin word is Galician custar, Spanish costar, Catalan costar, Occitan costar, French coûter and Italian costare;^[3][1] Romanian custa means “to live”.^[3][1] Nascentes explains the /u/ of the Portuguese verb from the older form with /o/, which was raised by metaphony in the forms stressed on the stem.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology quotes a document of 1242–1252: custou o uino XXI soldos “the wine cost 21 soldos”.^[5] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a thing is had que lle non custasse nada “without its costing him anything”, and the Crónica Troiana has lle custou moy caro “it cost him very dear”.^[5] The first sense is thus the price paid.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Already in the medieval texts the verb applied to the price of an act as well as of a thing: in the Cantigas de Santa Maria a deed tanto lle custou “cost him so much” of his wealth, and a cantiga has custe o que custar “cost what it may”.^[5][6] Bluteau (1712) defines it as being bought at a certain price.^[7] Morais (1789) adds the senses of causing expense, toil or trouble, and custar a vida, to be the cause of someone's death.^[8]

From “to cost effort” came “to be hard to do”, “to be painful” and “to be tiring”;^[9] Brazilian Portuguese also uses it for being slow, taking long to happen.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1242–1252 – custou o uino XXI soldos in a document quoted by Lorenzo.^[5]
• 13th century – Houaiss records the forms custar and costar.^[2]
• c. 1450 – the Livro das tres vertudes is the first text of the CTA corpus with the verb.^[10]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it by Latin consto.^[11]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives phrases such as Quanto vos custa este livro?.^[7]
• 1789 – Morais records custar a vida.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cost; to have a certain price or value: Este casaco custou cem euros.^[2][9][1]
2. To be acquired at the price of; to require (effort or sacrifice).^[2][12]
3. (figurative) To cause a loss, as of a job or a life: custar a vida.^[2][13]
4. To be hard to do: custa-me acreditar nisso.^[2][9][1]
5. To be painful or distressing.^[2][14]
6. To be tiring; to require work.^[2][1]
7. (Brazil) To be slow; to take long: o médico custou a aparecer.^[2][9]

Word family

• custo
• custoso

Related words

• constar
• Latin cōnstō
• Spanish costar

Usage notes

Set phrases: custe o que custar “whatever it takes” and custar os olhos da cara “to cost an arm and a leg”.^[2][13]

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 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. custar
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2170
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. custar
5. ^ 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. custar
6. ^ 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. custar
7. ^ 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. custar
8. ^ 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, 357
9. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. custar
10. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. custar
11. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. custar
12. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. custar
13. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2651
14. ^ 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. custar