declarar

Forms

declarar (first-person singular present declaro, first-person singular preterite declarei, past participle declarado)^[1] Houaiss records declarar and decrarar in the 13th century.^[2] Galician notarial texts of the 15th century still alternate decrarar and declarar, and Feijó (1734) lists decrarar beside the standard form.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēclārō (“to make clear, make known”), written Old Galician-Portuguese declarar and Old Galician-Portuguese decrarar in the oldest texts.^[2][5] Nascentes takes it as a learned word and says that the archaic variant was later remade on the Latin, and the DDGM calls that variant semi-learned.^[5][3] Wiktionary treats the verb as inherited, through the medieval language, from Latin.^[1]

The same Latin verb gave Galician declarar, Spanish declarar, Catalan declarar, French déclarer and Italian dichiarare.^[1] Corominas dates the Spanish verb to 1220–1250 and calls it a borrowing from Latin, and the DHLF dates the French one to about 1250.^[6][7]

The Latin verb is formed from dē- and clārō (“to make clear”), which comes from the adjective clārus (“loud; bright, clear”).^[1][8][2] De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *klāros (“loud”) and Proto-Indo-European *kl̥h₁rós (“loud, sonorous”), and notes the same shift from “loud” to “clear, bright” in hel.^[8] Wiktionary derives it from the root *kelh₁- (“to call, shout”), the root of calō and clāmō.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 13th century from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, and the DDGM notes that Machado found both declarar and decrarar only in 14th-century texts.^[2][3] In the medieval language it meant “to explain, make clear”.^[1] The legal sense is early: a Galician register of the 15th century has witnesses who diserõ e decrararõ “said and declared” before the judge, and the Ordenações Afonsinas use declaramos for what the king lays down in law.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The old dictionaries give the verb chiefly as “to explain, expound”: Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) render it with Latin verbs of explaining and interpreting.^[10][11] Folqman (1755) adds declarar-se “to make one's intentions known” and declarar guerra “to declare war”.^[12] Morais (1789) lists the senses “to make known something hidden”, “to declare goods at the customs”, “to pronounce (someone guilty)”, “to name, proclaim (a king)” and “to declare war”.^[13]

Modern Portuguese adds the declaring of income to the tax authorities and, in the reflexive, the revealing of one's love to someone.^[2][14] In popular Brazilian speech, especially in Minas Gerais, it can mean “to go mad”.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, as declarar and decrarar.^[2]
• 1416 – the Vida de Santo Aleixo Confessor uses the verb.^[16]
• 1416–1422 – Galician records of declararon and declarasse.^[3]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives it as “to explain, interpret”.^[10]
• 1734 – Feijó lists decrarar beside declarar.^[4]
• 1755 – Folqman records declarar guerra.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais lists the customs and legal senses.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make known, in speech or writing, something not yet public; to announce, reveal: declarou aos amigos que ia mudar de cidade.^[2][17][1]
2. To state formally or with conviction; to assert.^[18][14]
3. To submit goods, income or valuables to the authorities for inspection or taxation: declarar os rendimentos.^[2][14]
4. To proclaim officially; to decree: declarar guerra.^[2][17]
5. To pronounce someone or oneself to be something; to name, designate: o tribunal declarou-o inocente.^[2][13]
6. To make clear; to explain, clear up.^[2][17]
7. (reflexive) To appear suddenly, break out (of an illness or a fire).^[2][19]
8. (reflexive) To take the side of; to declare oneself for.^[2][20]
9. (reflexive) To confess one's love to someone.^[2][14]
10. (Brazil, informal) To go mad.^[2][15]

Word family

• declaração
• declarado
• declarador
• declarante

Related words

• claro
• aclarar
• esclarecer
• Latin dēclārō
• Spanish declarar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. declarar
3. ^ 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. declarar
4. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. declarar
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. declarar
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. claro
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. déclarer
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. ^ 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, 724
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. declarar
11. ^ 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. declarar
12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. declarar
13. ^ a b c 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, 364
14. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2701
15. ^ 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. declarar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. declarar
17. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. declarar
18. ^ 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. declarar
19. ^ 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. declarar
20. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. declarar