decair

Forms

decair (first-person singular present decaio, first-person singular preterite decaí, past participle decaído)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *dēcadō, a remaking of Latin dēcidō (“to fall down, fall off”) after the simple verb cadō (“to fall”), through a form Old Galician-Portuguese decaer.^[2][1][3] The DLP and Porto Editora give the same reconstructed verb as Medieval Latin.^[4][5] Houaiss, Michaelis and Priberam instead analyse the verb as formed in Portuguese, de- + cair, and Aulete gives both explanations.^[6][7][8][9] The Latin verb is itself formed with the prefix meaning “down from” and the verb for “to fall”.^[1][10]

The same reconstructed verb gave French déchoir, Old Occitan decazer and Catalan decaure.^[11] The DLE derives Spanish decaer from it too.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century, with the old form decaer beside decair.^[6][13] A cantiga of Estevan da Guarda has se decae, quen sera / que ia dereyto nen razon / for demandar, where the verb seems to mean “to fail, lose one's claim”: “if he loses, who will ever go and claim right or reason?”^[14] Medieval Latin already used its source verb for “to be forfeited” and “to lose a lawsuit”.^[15]

Semantic evolution

Vieira (1871–1874) gives the literal “to fall from a place” as little used and the main sense as “to decline, go to ruin”; figuratively “to lose possession of something”, as in decair da graça “to fall from favour”, and in the language of the courts decair da causa “to lose the case”.^[16] Houaiss marks “to fall down, collapse” as obsolete and records a rare nautical sense, “to drift off course”.^[6] In Brazil the verb is said of cachaça that comes from the still weaker and weaker as distilling goes on.^[17]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, as decaer and decair.^[6][13]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira calls the literal sense “to fall from a place” little used.^[16]
• 2001 – the DLP lists the senses “to droop”, “to lose strength or value”, “to lose quality” and, in law, “to lose a case”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete) To fall down; to collapse.^[6][16]
2. To hang down, droop, bend towards the ground.^[6][3][4]
3. To diminish in intensity; to drop, slacken.^[6][3][9]
4. To decline: to pass into a worse state, to fall into decadência.^[6][3][8][1]
5. To lose a good position or condition: decair da graça.^[6][16][7]
6. (law) To lose a lawsuit.^[6][16][4]
7. (nautical, rare) Of a ship, to drift off its course.^[6][9]

Word family

• decaimento

Related words

• cair
• descair
• decadência
• Latin dēcidō
• Spanish decaer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. decair
3. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. decair
4. ^ a b c d 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. decair
5. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2690
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. decair
7. ^ 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. decair
8. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. decair
9. ^ a b c 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. decair
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. decido
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. decadere
12. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. decaer
13. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cair
14. ^ 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. decair
15. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. decidere
16. ^ a b c d e 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, 721
17. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. decair