disparar

Forms

disparar (first-person singular present disparo, first-person singular preterite disparei, past participle disparado)^[1] The 15th-century texts have disparar, desparar and, with another prefix, esparar.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin disparō (“to divide, separate”), recorded in the 15th century both in its modern form and as Old Galician-Portuguese desparar.^[2][3][1] The Latin verb is formed from dis- and parō (“to make equal”), itself from pār (“equal”).^[3][4][1] García de Diego gives Old Spanish desparar (“to take apart”) as the old Castilian outcome and the modern Spanish verb as learned.^[5]

The sense “to shoot” grew in Romance, where the verb was understood as the opposite of parar in the sense “to prepare”: to fire a crossbow was to undo its readying for the shot.^[6][1] Nascentes's fuller dictionary explains it instead by the speed of the separation.^[7] In Medieval Latin the verb was already used of releasing a drawn crossbow in a French letter of remission of 1459.^[8]

The same verb is Spanish disparar, Galician disparar, Catalan disparar, Asturian disparar, Italian disparare and Occitan desparar.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha's first senses, for the 15th century, are to hurl, throw, let fly and fire a weapon.^[3] Houaiss dates the verb to the 15th century from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau in 1712–1728 uses the verb mainly of firearms, “when the bullets leave them”, and Feijó in 1734 glosses it “of a firearm”.^[9][10] Morais in 1789 adds the figurative “to let fly insults” and the intransitive “to set off moving”.^[11] In Brazil the verb came to mean the sudden scattering of a herd: Beaurepaire-Rohan records it in 1889 and Figueiredo in 1899, and Schlee finds it in the speech of Rio Grande do Sul for an animal or a troop bolting.^[12][13][14]

Houaiss's Brazilian sense “to break into a run” and the general “to rush off” come from the same idea of sudden release.^[2] The modern language uses it also of alarms and electric circuits that go off or trip, and of prices that shoot up.^[2][15][1]

Timeline

• 1400s – first records, as disparar, desparar and esparar.^[2][3]
• 1459 – Medieval Latin disparare “to release (a crossbow)” in a French document.^[8]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the firing of guns and artillery.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais adds figurative and intransitive senses.^[11]
• 1889 – Beaurepaire-Rohan records the Brazilian sense “to scatter suddenly (of a herd)”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To throw or hurl with force, by hand or with a weapon: Os rapazes disparavam pedras contra a parede.^[2][16]
2. To fire (a weapon); to shoot: O caçador disparou duas vezes.^[2][15][1]
3. (figurative) To cast (a look); to come out with (a sharp or unexpected remark).^[2][16]
4. To let out (a cry) with force and suddenly.^[2][16]
5. (Brazil) To break into a headlong run; to bolt.^[2]
6. To leave in a hurry; to rush off.^[2][15]
7. (of a herd) To scatter suddenly.^[17][15]
8. (electronics) To set off or trip (an alarm, a circuit); (intransitive) to go off.^[2][15][1]
9. (figurative) To shoot up; to rise sharply (of prices).^[1]

Word family

• disparador
• disparo

Related words

• parar
• díspar
• Latin pār
• Spanish disparar

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. disparar
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. disparar
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. disparo
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. disparare
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. disparar
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 161
8. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. disparare 2
9. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. disparar
10. ^ 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. disparar
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, 443
12. ^ a b Beaurepaire-Rohan, Henrique de (1889), Diccionario de vocabulos brazileiros, Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, p. s.v. disparar
13. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. disparar
14. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. disparar
15. ^ a b c d e 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. disparar
16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. disparar
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. disparar