demandar

Forms

demandar (first-person singular present demando, first-person singular preterite demandei, past participle demandado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote demandar, demãdar (1277) and demamdar (14th century).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dēmandō (“to entrust”), written Old Galician-Portuguese demandar and Old Galician-Portuguese demãdar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin verb is formed from dē- and mandō (“to entrust, order”), and meant “to entrust, hand over”.^[4] Houaiss notes that the sense moved to “ask, request” in Romance.^[2] Medieval Latin already used it for ordering, claiming a due and laying claim to a thing in law.^[5] The DHLF supposes that the sense “to make known what one wants” existed early, though it is recorded later.^[6]

The same Latin verb is Galician demandar, Spanish demandar, Catalan demanar (“to ask for”), Occitan demandar, French demander and Italian domandare.^[7][1] The REW notes that everywhere except in Romanian the Romance sense is “to ask”.^[7]

The sources disagree on the route: Nascentes calls the Portuguese verb learned, and the Porto Editora dictionary brings it through French, while Houaiss, Cunha and Wiktionary derive it straight from the Latin word.^{[8][9][2][3][1]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to 1274, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, and demãdar to 1277.^[2] In the cantigas the verb means “to ask for”, “to seek” and “to ask a question”: Airas Nunes looks for truth in the world and writes a demandei “I sought it”, and João Garcia de Guilhade begins a cantiga Estas donzelas que aqui demandam “these maidens who ask here”.^[10] The Crónica Troiana uses it both for seeking and for asking, as in veeron demandar tregoas “they came to ask for a truce”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense, “to claim in court”, is in the cantigas too.^[12] Cardoso (1569) translates the verb with Latin efflagito and posco “to demand”, and Pereira (1697) with litigo “to go to law”.^[13][14] Morais (1789) puts the lawsuit first, then “to demand”, “to ask as a favour”, demandar esmola “to beg alms”, and “to ask a question”.^[15] Viterbo records an old use for begging alms with public licence.^[16]

The old Aulete marks “to ask for” as archaic and gives “to need” (of a ship that needed deep water) and “to head for”.^[17] The Academia's dictionary marks the senses “to head for”, “to seek” and “to ask a question” as disused in Portugal.^[18] In Umbanda it means to cast a spell against someone.^[19]

Timeline

• 1274 – first record.^[2]
• 1277 – the spelling demãdar.^[2]
• 13th century – first records of demanda and demandador.^[3]
• c. 1400 – a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum (witness 1380–1425) is the first CTA text with the verb.^[20]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it as efflagito, posco.^[13]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it as litigo.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais gives the lawsuit as the first sense.^[15]
• 1798–1799 – Viterbo's Elucidário records the sense “to beg alms with licence”.^[16]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists “to seek”, “to claim”, “to ask”, “to need” and “to sue”.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. To try to obtain; to demand, claim: Os moradores demandam mais autocarros.^[2][1][22]
2. To need, require: Cuidar de um jardim demanda paciência.^[2][17]
3. To ask a question; to inquire.^[2][23]
4. To go in search of, to seek.^[2][24]
5. To head for;^[2][9] (nautical) to steer for a port; to reach a place.^[2][9]
6. (law) To sue; to claim in court.^[2][1]
7. (Umbanda) To cast a spell against someone.^[19]

Word family

• demanda
• demandador
• demandante

Related words

• comandar
• encomendar
• mandar
• Latin dēmandō
• French demander

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. demandar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. demandar
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dēmandō
5. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. demandare
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. demander
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2547
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. demandar
9. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2748
10. ^ 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. demandar
11. ^ 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. demandar
12. ^ 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. demandar
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. demandar
14. ^ a b 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. demandar
15. ^ 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, 373
16. ^ 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, 361
17. ^ a b 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. demandar
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. demandar
19. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. demandar
20. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. demandar
21. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. demandar
22. ^ 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. demandar
23. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. demandar
24. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. demandar