doar

Forms

doar (first-person singular present doo, first-person singular preterite doei, past participle doado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote dõar (1255), doar (1279) and, in the 14th century, doõar.^[2][3] Galician notarial books of Noia have the present doo and dõo “I give” (1381–1403).^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dōnō (“to present, give”), recorded as Old Galician-Portuguese dõar in 1255 and spelt without the tilde from 1279.^[2][3][1] The Latin verb was formed from dōnum (“gift, present”), itself related to dō (“to give”).^[2][3][5]

Galician has the same form; the Latin verb also gave Spanish donar, Catalan donar, French donner and Italian donare.^[6][1] Corominas notes that the Spanish verb may be a semi-learned word, but that the popular shape of the Portuguese verb, without the /n/, and the Galician word show that the verb was also inherited in the west of the peninsula.^[7] In French, Occitan and Catalan the verb took over the field of “to give” from the descendants of the Latin word for “give”.^[7]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *dōno- “gift” and Proto-Indo-European *deh₃-no- or *doh₃-no-;^[8] Oscan and Venetic also have a verb “to give as a gift” built on this noun, though it may have been formed separately in each language.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to 1255, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, in the spelling dõar.^[2] The early records are legal: a document of 1274 has the subjunctive in the formula uendadela, doendela, cambedela “sell it, give it, exchange it”, and the sense in such texts is to hand over property for nothing.^[4] A cantiga d'escarnho of Pero da Ponte uses it more loosely, for giving someone a staff (per doar-lh' o baton que fui meu).^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

In the notarial books of Noia the verb stands among the formulas of property law: a deed of 1381 has dóuvoslo et dõo en lyure et pura doaçõ “I give it and grant it to you in free and pure donation”, and one of 1445 lets the buyer dar et doar et trocar the land.^[4] The noun doação is as old as the verb (13th century) and donatário, the learned form, follows in the 15th.^[3]

Bluteau defined the verb only as “to make a donation”, and Morais called it a term of the law courts.^[10][11] Vieira added the general senses “to attribute, grant, hand over”.^[12] The figurative use for dedicating oneself or one's life to a person or a cause is recorded in the modern dictionaries, as is the giving of blood or organs to a hospital.^[2][13][14] Doador “donor” appears in 1813.^[3]

Timeline

• 1255 – first record, spelt dõar.^[2]
• 1274 – the subjunctive doendela “give it” in a Galician document.^[4]
• 1279 – the spelling doar.^[2]
• 1381 – dõo en lyure et pura doaçõ in a notarial book of Noia.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary translates doar with Latin dono.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses it “to make a donation”.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais enters it as a legal term.^[11]
• 1813 – first record of doador.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira lists the senses “attribute, grant, hand over”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law) To transfer goods or rights to another person freely and without payment; to make a doação: A avó doou a casa aos netos.^[2][14][13]
2. To give or donate something for nothing: Doámos roupa ao abrigo.^[2][1]
3. To give blood or organs for medical use.^[14]
4. To grant, bestow: os dons que o céu lhe doou.^[13]
5. (figurative, also pronominal) To devote (oneself, one's time or life) to a person or a cause: doou-se à causa dos pobres.^[2][13][17]

Word family

• doação
• doador

Related words

• donatário
• dom
• Latin dōnum
• Galician doar
• Spanish donar

Usage notes

Some Portuguese dialects have an unrelated noun doar “air, look, manner”, recorded in the Alentejo beside doairo and doaire.^[18]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. doar
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. doar
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. doar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dōnō
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 414
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. doar
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. doar
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, 450
12. ^ a b 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, 1100
13. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. doar
14. ^ 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. doar
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. doar
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. doar
17. ^ 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. doar
18. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. doar