depor

Forms

depor (first-person singular present deponho, first-person singular preterite depus, past participle deposto)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dēpōnō (“to lay down, put aside”), first recorded as Old Galician-Portuguese despoer in the 14th century and as Old Galician-Portuguese depoer in the 15th, while the present form is dated from the 17th.^[2][3][4] Nascentes calls it semi-learned, and Wiktionary a learned borrowing that can also be analysed as from Portuguese de- + pôr.^[5][1] The medieval form has the prefix des- in place of de-, a confusion that the DDGM finds common in Portuguese, Galician and Spanish texts of the Middle Ages.^[6]

The Latin verb is formed from dē- (“down, away”) and pōnō (“to put, place”).^[7][1] The same Latin verb is Galician depor, Spanish deponer, Italian deporre and Romanian depune.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Crónica Geral de Espanha of 1344 promises a man great wealth se desposesse o arcebispado dom Bernaldo “if he removed Archbishop Dom Bernaldo”: the first sense on record is “to depose from office”.^[6] A Galician notarial book uses the verb for witnesses giving evidence: o que os ditos testigos diserõ e despuserõ “what the said witnesses said and deposed”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The 16th-century dictionaries enter Depoer as “to testify under oath”.^[9][10] Pereira's Depor of 1697 means “to deprive”, and Folqman in 1755 gives the three senses “to put aside”, “to remove from an office” and “to give a deposition”.^[11][12] Morais adds depor as armas “to lay down one's arms” and depor o ceptro “to abdicate”.^[13] Later the verb took the senses “to deposit” and, of a liquid, “to let its dregs settle”.^[14] Of its derivatives Cunha dates depoimento “testimony” to the 15th century and deposto to the 16th.^[3]

Timeline

• 1344 – desposesse in the Crónica Geral de Espanha.^[6]
• 1390–1437 – despoer in the Horto do Esposo.^[15]
• 15th century – the form depoer, and the noun depoimento.^[2][3]
• 1540 – depõe in a private letter.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso enters Depoer “to testify under oath” beside Despoer.^[9][17]
• 17th century – the form depor.^[2]
• 1755 – Folqman lists the senses “put aside”, “remove from office” and “testify”.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais records depor as armas.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put down, lay aside (something one was carrying or holding).^[2][4]
2. To depose, remove from office or power: Os militares depuseram o governo.^[2][18]
3. To take down, lower from a high position.^[2][4]
4. To give up, renounce (an office or dignity); depor a coroa, to abdicate (abdicar).^[19] depor as armas, to surrender.^[2][19]
5. To place, set down; to place (trust or hope) in someone.^[2][20]
6. To put an end to, abandon.^[2]
7. (law) To give evidence, testify (testemunhar): A vizinha foi chamada a depor no julgamento.^[2][14]
8. To tell for or against, constitute evidence (with contra or a favor de).^[2][14]
9. (reflexive) To settle, be deposited at the bottom.^[2][19]

Word family

• depoente
• depoimento
• deposto

Related words

• deposição
• pôr
• depósito
• depositar
• Spanish deponer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. depor
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. depor
4. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. depor
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. depor
6. ^ 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. despoer
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dēpōnō
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2572
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. depoer
10. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. depoer
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. depor
12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. depor
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 533
14. ^ 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. depor
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. despoer
16. ^ 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. depor
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. despoer
18. ^ 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. depor
19. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. depor
20. ^ 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. depor