deitar

Forms

deitar (first-person singular present deito, first-person singular preterite deitei, past participle deitado)^[1] The 13th century wrote deitar, deytar and also adeitar.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *dēctō (“to throw down”), written Old Galician-Portuguese deitar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Houaiss and Cunha find the contracted infinitive in the Medieval Latin of Portugal, and both derive it from Latin dēiectō (“to throw down”), a frequentative of dēiciō (“to throw down”), from dē- and iaciō (“to throw”).^[2][3] The Wiktionary entry for the Old Galician-Portuguese verb assumes an earlier form Old Galician-Portuguese *deieitar, shortened by haplology.^[1]

This derivation is the usual one, since Diez and Meyer-Lübke, and Carolina Michaëlis accepted it in her glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda.^[4] Cornu rejected it and found difficulties with a form built on the Latin verb, while he and Meyer-Lübke traced Spanish echar and archaic Portuguese jeitar to iactō (“to throw”).^[4] García de Diego derives Galician deitar from the same Latin frequentative as the Portuguese word.^[4]

The Latin frequentative is rare: Gellius quotes it from Mattius for throwing down vessels.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A document of the Benedictine nuns of Porto of 1285, quoted by Viterbo, has Mando a mha carne deitar “I order my body to be laid to rest”, that is, buried.^[7] In the 13th-century cantigas the verb means “to put, to lay”, “to throw out, to banish” and, in the reflexive, “to lie down”: Martin Soarez speaks of a lineage that cannot be banished to Castile (deitar a Castela), and a cantiga d'escarnho has el deitou-se e cobriu-s' enton “he lay down and covered himself then”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the verb is already very wide: to throw barley to animals, to pour water over a head, to give off milk, to throw someone into prison, to drive out of the kingdom.^[8] A Galician cantiga d'escarnho also uses it of a vine putting out shoots.^[8]

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 glosses it with Latin iaceo “to lie”, Pereira's of 1697 with jacio “to throw”.^[10][11] Bluteau (1712–1728) gives lançar and botar as synonyms, with pouring water or wine and shedding tears.^[12] Folqman (1755) has deitar a perder “to spoil” and deitar galinhas “to set hens on eggs”.^[13] Morais (1789) puts “to lay a person down to rest” first, then “to throw, cast”, deitar fora “to throw away” and deitar a culpa “to lay the blame”.^[14]

Houaiss lists more than twenty senses, among them “to face onto” (a balcony that looks out on the sea).^[2] In the dialects of northern Portugal it can mean “to give, hand over”, and elsewhere in Portugal “to suppose”.^[15] Phrases of Rio Grande do Sul include deitar e rolar “to do as one pleases”.^[16]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, as deitar, deytar and adeitar.^[2][3]
• 13th century – the cantigas use it for “to banish”, “to put” and “to lie down”.^[8]
• 1285 – Mando a mha carne deitar “I order my body to be buried”, in a document from Porto.^[7]
• 1416 – the verb in the Vida de Santo Aleixo, the earliest record in the CTA.^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin iaceo “to lie”.^[10]
• 1755 – Folqman records deitar a perder and deitar galinhas.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais puts the sense “to lay down to rest” first.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (pronominal, intransitive) To lie down; to go to bed: Deitou-se cedo porque estava cansado.^[2][18][1]
2. (transitive) To lay or put in a horizontal position; to put to bed: deitar o bebé no berço.^[2][18][1]
3. (transitive) To throw, cast, hurl.^[2][19][1]
4. (transitive) To pour; to put or drop in: deitar azeite na salada.^[2][18][1]
5. (transitive) To give off, emit: smoke, a smell, blood, sap.^[2][18][1]
6. (transitive) To put out (roots, shoots); to produce.^[2][19]
7. (transitive) To lean, bend: O vento deitou as espigas.^[2][18]
8. (intransitive, with para) To face, look out on.^[2][19]

Related words

• dejetar
• Latin dēiectō
• Galician deitar

Usage notes

Set phrases include deitar fora “to throw away”, deitar abaixo “to knock down, demolish” and deitar a perder “to spoil, ruin”.^[19][14][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. deitar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. deitar
4. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. deitar
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. deiecto
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. deiecto
7. ^ 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, 360
8. ^ 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. deitar
9. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. deitar
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. deitar
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. deitar
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. deitar
13. ^ a b c Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. deitar
14. ^ 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, 370
15. ^ 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. deitar
16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. deitar
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. deitar
18. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. deitar
19. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. deitar