dormir

Forms

dormir (first-person singular present durmo, third-person singular present dorme, first-person singular preterite dormi, past participle dormido)^[1] Later medieval spellings are dormjr, dormiir and durmyr.^[2] The first person dórmio of the cantigas has become durmo.^[3][1] Feijó (1734) warns against the form dromir;^[4][5][6] dromir and drumir still live in the dialects of Portugal.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dormiō (“to sleep”), written Old Galician-Portuguese dormir in the oldest texts.^[2][7][1]

The same Latin word is Galician durmir, Spanish dormir, Catalan dormir, French dormir, Italian dormire and Romanian dormi.^[8][1] The REW notes forms with ⟨dro-⟩ in northern Italy, Rhaeto-Romance, French, Occitan and Portuguese dialects.^[8]

The Latin verb goes back to *dormiō, from *dr̥m-yé-ti, a present of *drem- (“to sleep”).^[1] De Vaan compares дрѣмати (drěmati, “to doze”) and δαρθάνω (darthánō, “to fall asleep”).^[9] Bluteau (1712–1728) had derived the verb from a Greek word for “skin”, because the ancients slept on hides.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][7] The cantigas have dórmio “I sleep” and dormiu, and the Crónica Troiana says of the besieged that they had such toil that night que non dormiron “that they did not sleep”.^[3] The lyric also uses the infinitive as a noun, “sleep”: ora cuid' eu cobrar o dormir / que perdi “now I hope to recover the sleep that I lost”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the statutes of a confraternity quoted by Viterbo, of 1290 and 1348, dormir com o Confrade meant to spend the night watching over a sick brother.^[12] Morais (1789) records dormir em o Senhor “to die” and the figurative dormem as Leis “the laws are not enforced”.^[13] Figueiredo (1899) has “to spend the night”, “to be latent” and a noun “the state of one who sleeps”.^[14]

The euphemism dormir com “to have sex with” is in the original Aulete.^[15] Brazilian Portuguese gave the verb the senses “to be shelved” (of a file), “to be caught napping” (of a goalkeeper), “to go numb” (of a leg) and “to spin so fast it seems still” (of a top).^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – dormir in the cantigas.^[2][7][3]
• 1290 – a confraternity's statutes use dormir com for keeping night watch over a sick member.^[12]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (witness 1391–1450) uses the verb.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Dormir by Latin dormio.^[17]
• 1595 – first record of dormideira, the opium poppy.^[7]
• 1734 – Feijó prescribes dormir, not dromir.^[4]
• 1789 – Morais records dormir em o Senhor “to die”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sleep, to be asleep.^[2][18][1]
2. To fall asleep.^[2][1]
3. To spend a length of time asleep; to have a sleep of a given kind: Dormiu a tarde inteira.^[2][15]
4. To spend the night somewhere; to share a bed or room with someone.^[2][19]
5. (figurative) To have sex with someone (dormir com).^[2][1]
6. (figurative) To rest in death.^[2][18]
7. (figurative) To be still or calm; to lie dormant: O vulcão dorme há séculos.^[2][20]
8. (Brazil, figurative) To be neglected or shelved; to act without due attention.^[2][1]
9. (Brazil) Of a limb, to go numb.^[2][1]

Noun

1. The state of being asleep; sleep.^[2][19]

Word family

• dormida
• dormideira
• dormidor
• dorminhoco
• adormir

Related words

• dormitório
• dormente
• dormitar
• adormecer
• Latin dormiō
• Galician durmir
• Spanish dormir

Usage notes

Idioms include dormir a sono solto “to sleep soundly” and dormir com as galinhas “to go to bed very early”.^[2][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. dormir
3. ^ a b c 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. dormir
4. ^ a b c 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. dormir
5. ^ a b 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. dormir
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. dormire
7. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. dormir
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2751
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dormir
11. ^ 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. dormir
12. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 36
13. ^ 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, 455
14. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. dormir
15. ^ a b 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. dormir
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. dormir
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dormir
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. dormir
19. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3271
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. dormir