descobrir

Forms

descobrir (first-person singular present descubro, third-person singular present descobre, first-person singular preterite descobri, past participle descoberto)^[1] Medieval texts also wrote descubrir (13th century) and descobrjr and descobryr (14th century).^[2] Feijó in 1734 still had to choose between descobrir and descubrir.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin discooperiō (“to uncover, lay bare”), written Old Galician-Portuguese descobrir in the oldest texts.^[2][4][5][1] The Late Latin verb is formed from dis- and cooperiō (“to cover wholly”);^[1][6] Wiktionary notes that it is found in the eighth-century Reichenau Glosses, and Lewis and Short cite it from the Vulgate.^[1][6] Aurélio, Vieira and Figueiredo explain the word as from Portuguese cobrir with the prefix des-, and Wiktionary agrees that it can be analysed so.^[7][8][9][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician descubrir, Spanish descubrir, Catalan descobrir, French découvrir and, with a change of prefix, Italian scoprire.^[10][11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology notes discobre in a Latin charter of 1068 (furtum et discobre illum dominus).^[12] In Galician-Portuguese the verb is recorded from the 13th century.^[2][4] In the cantigas d'escarnho it means to reveal or confess (Quero-vos eu ora descobrir “now I want to reveal to you”) and to denounce someone.^[12][13] The Crónica Troiana uses it for disclosing a secret.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The medieval senses were to uncover, to reveal and to denounce.^[14][12] Pereira's dictionary of 1697 gives Latin nudo, manifesto and aperio: to lay bare, make known, open.^[15] In the age of the voyages the verb was used for finding unknown lands, and descobrimento is recorded in João de Barros in 1552.^[4][2] The modern language uses it above all for finding what was hidden or unknown, for realising a fact, and for inventing; a weather sense, of the sky clearing, is also old.^[2][9][16] The reflexive descobrir-se means to take off one's hat, and to reveal oneself.^[2][17]

Timeline

• 1068 – discobre in a Latin charter.^[12]
• 13th century – first records in Galician-Portuguese, beside descubrir.^[2][4]
• 1431–1446 – descobrir in the Vida do Infante Josafat.^[18]
• 1552 – descobrimento in João de Barros.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it with Latin retego “to uncover”.^[19]
• 1734 – Feijó prefers descobrir to descubrir.^[3]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the intransitive sense “to clear up” of the sky.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To uncover, to remove what covers something: descobrir o tacho.^[2][7][1]
2. (also reflexive) To take off clothes or bedcovers; to take off one's hat: Ao entrar na igreja, descobriu-se.^[2][17]
3. To leave in view, to show: A maré baixa descobriu as rochas.^[2][7]
4. To make known, to reveal something personal: descobriu à mãe o que sentia.^[2][5]
5. To discover, to find for the first time what was unknown: Os portugueses descobriram o caminho marítimo para a Índia.^[2][16][1]
6. To invent.^[2][16]
7. To leave without protection or cover.^[2][5]
8. To catch sight of, to make out: descobrir alguém na multidão.^[2][20]
9. To find what was hidden; to find out, to realise: Descobriu tarde que tinha perdido a chave.^[2][7][1]
10. (intransitive) Of the sky, to clear.^[16][17]

Word family

• descoberta
• descoberto
• descobridor
• descobrimento
• redescobrir

Related words

• cobrir
• encobrir
• Galician descubrir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. descobrir
3. ^ 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. descobrir
4. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cobrir
5. ^ a b c 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. descobrir
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. discooperio
7. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. descobrir
8. ^ 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, 828
9. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. descobrir
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2659
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. découvrir
12. ^ 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. descobrir
13. ^ 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. descobrir
14. ^ 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. descobrir
15. ^ 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. descobrir
16. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. descobrir
17. ^ a b c 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. descobrir
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. descobrir
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. descobrir
20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2885