dourar

Forms

dourar (first-person singular present douro, first-person singular preterite dourei, past participle dourado)^[1] The variant doirar is also standard;^[1][2][3] Feijó (1734) gives both, and Figueiredo (1899) enters the verb under doirar.^[1][2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin dēaurō (“to gild”), written Old Galician-Portuguese dourar in medieval texts.^[4][5][1][6] Its participle dourado is recorded in the 13th century, the verb itself in the 14th.^[4][5]

The same Latin verb is Galician dourar, Spanish dorar, Catalan daurar, Occitan daurar, French dorer and Italian dorare.^[7][1]

The Latin verb is formed dē- + aurō (“to gild”), from aurum (“gold”).^[1][8]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) translate the verb by Latin inauro.^[9][10] Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as laying gold leaf on something and already has the figurative dourar a pirola, “to sweeten something bitter”.^[11] Morais (1789) explains the phrase from covering a pill with gold leaf to hide its taste, and records dourar um não “to soften a refusal” and dourar erros “to cover faults with a fair appearance”.^[12] The French phrase dorer la pilule recalls the same practice of the apothecaries.^[8]

Modern dictionaries add “to give a golden colour”, of the sun on fields and roofs, and figuratively “to embellish” and “to make happy”.^[4][13] In bookbinding it means to stamp a spine or cover in gold.^[14]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record of the participle dourado.^[4]
• 14th century – first record of the verb dourar.^[4][5]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders dourar by Latin inauro.^[9]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records dourar a pirola.^[11]
• 1734 – Feijó gives both dourar and doirar.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais records dourar um não and dourar erros.^[12]
• 1813 – first record of dourador and douradura.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gild, to coat with gold leaf or gold powder, or with something that looks like gold: Mandou dourar o espelho.^[4][13][1]
2. To give a golden colour to: O sol da tarde dourava o trigo.^[4][15]
3. (also reflexive) To make or become bright and shining.^[4][16]
4. (figurative) To embellish, to give lustre to; to make happy.^[13][15]
5. (figurative) To disguise something unpleasant under a fair appearance: dourar a pílula.^[13][15][14]
6. (bookbinding) To stamp a spine or cover in gold.^[14]

Word family

• dourado
• dourador
• douradura
• douração
• desdourar
• desdouro

Related words

• ouro
• Latin aurum
• Galician dourar
• Spanish dorar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. dourar
3. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. dourar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. dourar
5. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. dourar
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. dourar
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. dorer
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dourar
10. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dourar
11. ^ 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. dourar
12. ^ 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, 456
13. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. dourar
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. dourar
15. ^ a b c 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. dourar
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. dourar