despir

Forms

despir (first-person singular present dispo, third-person singular present despe, first-person singular preterite despi, past participle despido)^[1] Barbosa in 1611 enters Despir, aliàs espir, with the older form beside the new.^[2] The verb changes its vowel in the present: eu dispo, tu despes, ele despe, as Feijó already set out in 1734.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin expediō (“to free from fastenings, disentangle”), through the older Old Galician-Portuguese espir, with the prefix ⟨ex-⟩ replaced by des-.^{[4][5][6][7][1]} The form without ⟨d-⟩ is recorded in a medieval Galician text glossed in the DDGM.^[8] Cunha sees the verb as a divergent form of despedir, through the same older form, and derives both from Latin expetō.^[9] Silva Bastos and Figueiredo call it a contraction of that verb.^[10][11]

The same Latin verb is Galician espir “to undress” and Italian spedire.^[7][1] García de Diego adds the reflexive ⟨espirse⟩ of Asturian and Galician, and Cantabrian Spanish hespir “to fluff up wool”.^[12]

The Latin verb is formed from ex- (“out of”) and pēs (“foot”), like impediō (“to hinder”).^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A medieval Galician text has mãdoo espir d'aquela saya “he had him stripped of that tunic”.^[8] In Portuguese, Houaiss's first record is the participle despido, of the 14th century;^[4] despir itself follows in the 15th.^[4] Cunha dates both the verb and despido to the 16th century.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed close to “to take the clothes off”: Cardoso in 1569 glosses it with Latin exuo, and Pereira in 1697 adds the Latin for stripping and despoiling.^[14][15] Morais in 1813 records the figurative uses: the snake sheds its skin every year, the tree its leaves and bark, and one can strip the memory of images.^[16] Today the verb is also used for giving up a habit or a feeling, and for leaving an office whose dress one wore.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 14th century – the participle despido.^[4]
• 15th century – first record of despir.^[4]
• 16th century – Cunha's date for the verb.^[9]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses it with Latin exuo.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives despir and espir side by side.^[2]
• 1734 – Feijó sets out the forms dispo, despes, despe.^[3]
• 1813 – Morais records the figurative senses.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To undress someone, to take off his or her clothes;^[4][6][1] (reflexive) to undress, to strip.^[4][6][1]
2. To take off a garment, shoes or gloves: despiu o casaco e sentou-se.^[4][19]
3. To strip of a covering or ornament: o outono despe as árvores.^[4][20][21]
4. (figurative) To lay aside, give up (a habit, a feeling, a manner); to rid oneself of: despir-se de preconceitos.^[17][21]
5. To give up an office or dignity that involves wearing a particular dress.^[18][17]

Word family

• despido

Related words

• despedir
• expedir
• Galician espir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. despir
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. despir
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. despir
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. despir
6. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. despir
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3040
8. ^ a b 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. espir
9. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. despedir
10. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. despir
11. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. despir
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. expedire
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. expedio
14. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. despir
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. despir
16. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 597
17. ^ 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. despir
18. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3046
19. ^ 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. despir
20. ^ 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. despir
21. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. despir