depender

Forms

depender (first-person singular present dependo, first-person singular preterite dependi, past participle dependido)^[1] A private letter of 1544 spells the verb depemder.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēpendeō (“to hang down from; to depend on”), taken over by the learned route.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin verb is formed dē- + pendeō (“to hang, be suspended”).^[6][1] Seen from Portuguese, the word reads as a prefixed form of pender.^[1]

The same Latin verb gave Spanish depender, French dépendre and Italian dipendere.^[7][8][1] The French word was borrowed from Latin in the 12th century, and the DHLF notes that the figurative senses “to be attached to” and “to be under the authority of” were already Latin.^[8] Wiktionary traces the Latin root verb to *pendēō and Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to stretch, pull”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 14th century after Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, and Cunha also gives the 14th century, with the sense “to be subject to; to derive, proceed from”.^[3][4] The private letters of the Post Scriptum corpus have it from 1544, written depemder.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the verb first meant “to hang down from”.^[6] The early Portuguese–Latin dictionaries render the Portuguese verb by dēpendeō (Cardoso, 1569) or by plain pendeō with Cicero's phrase vita omnium ex unius vita pendet “the life of all hangs on the life of one” (Barbosa, 1611).^[9][10] Morais (1789) defines it as “to be dependent”, with examples on depending on the Creator and on one's own prudence.^[11] The original Caldas Aulete adds “to belong to” an institution, as judges belong to a court.^[12]

Modern dictionaries distinguish being conditioned by circumstances, needing someone's support, awaiting a decision of an authority, resulting from a cause and being part of a whole.^[3][13][14] The derivatives followed: dependência and independente in the 16th century, dependente in the 17th, independência in 1813.^[4]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, after Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[3][4]
• 1544 – depemder in a private letter.^[2]
• 16th century – first records of dependência and independente.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary has Depender.^[9]
• 1611 – Barbosa renders it by Latin pendeo.^[10]
• 17th century – first record of dependente.^[4]
• 1755 – Folqman gives tudo depende de ti “everything depends on you”.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as “to be dependent”.^[11]
• 1813 – first record of independência.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (with de) To be subject to or conditioned by something: A colheita depende do tempo.^[3][14][1]
2. To need the help, protection or support of someone: Ainda depende da família para viver.^[3][12]
3. To await the decision of an authority: A obra depende da autorização da câmara.^[3][13]
4. To be under someone's authority or hierarchical dependence (dependência).^[13][14]
5. To result from, derive from: O êxito depende do esforço.^[13][16]
6. To be part of a whole; to be attached to it: Esta capela depende da paróquia.^[13][14][16]

Word family

• dependência
• dependente
• independente
• interdependência

Related words

• pender
• pendente
• Latin dēpendeō
• Spanish depender

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 CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. depender
3. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. depender
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. depender
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. depender
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dēpendeō
7. ^ 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. depender
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. dépendre
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. depender
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. depender
11. ^ 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, 377
12. ^ 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. depender
13. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. depender
14. ^ 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. depender
15. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. depender
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. depender