danar

Forms

danar (first-person singular present dano, first-person singular preterite danei, past participle danado)^[1] Houaiss records the Latinising spellings dapnar in the 14th century and dãpnar in the 15th.^[2][1] Wiktionary lists damnar as an alternative form.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin damnō (“to condemn; to harm”), written Old Galician-Portuguese danar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin verb is formed from damnum (“loss, damage”).^[5][1] In Medieval Latin it meant “to damn to hell”, “to wrong someone” and “to damage something”.^[6]

The same Latin verb gives Galician danar, Spanish dañar, Catalan danyar and Italian dannare.^[7][8][1] French damner was borrowed from Church Latin in the 10th century, and García de Diego calls the Spanish damnar a learned form.^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The participle danado appears in Galician documents of the 13th century, in curse formulas: in 1228 e cum Judas traedor no inferno danado “and damned in hell with Judas the traitor”, and in 1271 de uoso Senor seya danado por ja mays “may he be damned by your Lord for ever”.^[10] Houaiss's first date for the verb is 1262.^[2] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the verb means “to damage, spoil”: one miracle tells how the Virgin kept her relics from being spoiled among many others that were (que se non danassen entr'outras muitas que se danaron).^[10]

Semantic evolution

Viterbo (1798) notes that danar “to cause damage” was frequent in the 13th and 14th centuries.^[11] Houaiss dates to the 13th century not only the sense “to harm, spoil” but also “to give someone rabies” and “to make furious”.^[2] Cardoso (1569) renders it by Latin depravo and detero.^[12] Bluteau (1712) renders it by “to corrupt”, with danam-se os ovos “the eggs go bad”.^[13]

Brazilian Portuguese gave the verb new senses: “to throw” and “to act on impulse” in the north-east, danar a + infinitive “to start doing something with gusto”, and danar-se “to clear off”.^[2][14][15] The participle danado is recorded from the 14th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 1228 – danado “damned” in a curse formula of a Galician document.^[10]
• 1262 – Houaiss's first date for danar.^[2]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use the verb for spoiled relics.^[10]
• 14th century – first records of danado and danação.^[3]
• c. 1440 – danar in Do Dia do Juízo (copied 1431–1446).^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin depravo.^[12]
• 1712 – Bluteau's sense “to corrupt”.^[13]
• 1798 – Viterbo notes it as frequent in the 13th and 14th centuries.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To condemn in a court of law.^[2]
2. To cause or suffer harm or loss; to damage, spoil: A geada danou a vinha.^[2][1][17]
3. To corrupt or degenerate, physically or morally.^[2][17]
4. (religion) To damn to the pains of hell.^[2][1]
5. To give someone rabies (raiva); to become rabid.^[2][18]
6. (figurative) To make or become furious: Danou-se com a resposta do filho.^[2][1]
7. (reflexive) To struggle hard to achieve something.^[2]
8. (north-eastern Brazil) To throw something hard or carelessly.^[2][14]
9. (Brazil) To start doing something with gusto: danou a rir.^[2][15]
10. (reflexive) To overdo something: danar-se de rir.^[2]
11. (Brazil) To run off, to disappear.^[2][15]

Word family

• danado
• danação

Related words

• danificar
• daninho
• dano
• danoso
• Latin damnō
• Spanish dañar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. danar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. danar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. danar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. damnare
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2467
8. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. damnare
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. damner
10. ^ 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. danar
11. ^ a b 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. 1, 344
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. danar
13. ^ 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. danar
14. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. danar
15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. danar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. danar
17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. danar
18. ^ 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. danar