dobrar

Forms

dobrar (first-person singular present dobro, first-person singular preterite dobrei, past participle dobrado)^[1] 13th-century texts write dobrar, dublar and doblar.^[2] The participle appears as doblada in 1270 and dubrada in 1279.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin duplō (“to double”), from duplus (“double”).^[2][4][1] Cunha derives the adjective from duo (“two”).^[4] The same Latin verb is Galician dobrar, Spanish doblar, Catalan doblar, Occitan doblar, French doubler and Italian doppiare.^[5][1] Houaiss notes that the Latin source explains the pair of popular words in dobr- and learned words in dupl- such as duplicar; dublar “to dub” is a 20th-century borrowing of the French verb.^[2][4]

Silva Bastos and Figueiredo derived the verb from the noun dobro, and the Portuguese Wiktionary does so for the sense “to multiply by two”.^[6][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters write dublatum (919) and ipsas terras dupladas (921), and one of 1090 has quantum calumniaberint tantum dublent, “let them pay double what they claimed”.^[3] The first Romance record is a charter of 1255: et dobre a demanda, “and let him pay the claim twice over”.^[3] The sense is “to double”, the usual one in the medieval legal texts.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Cancioneiro da Ajuda has the doubling of a lover's grief (dobrou-xi-m' a coita), and the Crónica Troiana both “to increase” and “to fold”: Hector has a silk banner folded to bind a wound.^[3] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 glosses the word only as plico “to fold”.^[9]

Morais (1813) records the folding of cloth and paper, the tolling of bells (dobrar os sinos), dobrar o cabo “to round a cape” and dobrar o joelho “to bend the knee”.^[10] Figueiredo (1899) adds “to tame”, “to make someone give in”, and in Trás-os-Montes “to gallop”.^[7] Nascentes explains the bell sense by the bell turning on its axis with a mournful sound, and the Brazilian sense “to warble” by the two notes of a trill.^[11] In Brazil the verb also means “to turn a corner”, and in Portugal “to dub a film”.^[1][12]

Timeline

• 919 – dublatum in a Latin charter.^[3]
• 1255 – dobre a demanda in a charter.^[3]
• 1270 – outra tal herdade doblada.^[3]
• c. 1430 – dobrar in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Dobrar with Latin plico “to fold”.^[9]
• 1813 – Morais records dobrar os sinos and dobrar o cabo.^[10]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the Trás-os-Montes sense “to gallop”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To double, multiply by two; to become twice as large.^[2][14][1]
2. (transitive) To increase; to make more intense.^[2][14]
3. (transitive) To fold, turn part of something over the rest: dobrar a toalha.^[14][1]
4. (transitive) To bend, flex: dobrar o joelho.^[14][10]
5. (transitive) To round or go past, turning: dobrar o cabo, dobrar a esquina.^[12][10]
6. (intransitive, Brazil) To turn left or right.^[1]
7. (transitive) To subdue, make someone give in; to tame.^[12][1]
8. (intransitive) To toll, of a bell, especially for the dead.^[12][1]
9. (transitive, Portugal) To dub a film.^[12][1]
10. (reflexive) To bend, become curved.^[1]

Word family

• desdobrar
• dobra
• dobrada
• dobradiça
• dobradiço
• dobrado
• dobradura
• dobragem
• dobramento
• dobrável
• dobre

Related words

• duplicar
• dobro
• duplo
• dublar
• Latin duplus
• Spanish doblar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. dobrar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. dobrar
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. dobrar
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. duplare
6. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. dobrar
7. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. dobrar
8. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. dobrar
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dobrar
10. ^ a b c d Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 633
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. dobrar
12. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. dobrar
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. dobrar
14. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. dobrar