embargar

Forms

embargar (first-person singular present embargo, first-person singular preterite embarguei, past participle embargado)^[1] The medieval texts write both embargar and enbargar.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *imbarricō (“to bar, block”), a verb formed on *barra (“crossbar, bar for shutting a door”).^[4][3][5][1] Meyer-Lübke reconstructs the Vulgar Latin verb with the sense “to bar off” and finds it only in Occitan and the Iberian languages.^[6] The same verb is Galician embargar, Spanish embargar and Catalan embargar.^[7][6] Corominas dates the Spanish verb to about 1140 and its noun embargo to 1020, and calls the verb common to the three Romance languages of the Peninsula and to Occitan.^[8]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain: Corominas counts it among the pre-Roman words common to all the Romance languages except Romanian.^[9] Wiktionary mentions a Gaulish source, now largely discredited, and a Germanic one, *barō (“bar, barrier”).^[1]

Among older views, Adolfo Coelho, as Nascentes reports, took it from the prefix em- and barrica,^[10] and Vieira derived it from virga (“rod”).^[11] Priberam and the Porto Editora dictionary give a Latin *imbracō (“to put breeches on”), from brāca (“breeches”).^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin decree of 1227 already uses the verb (nec pretores nec aliqui maiorales embarguent eos façere iusticiam, “let neither magistrates nor any officials stop them doing justice”).^[2] The first record in Galician-Portuguese is a charter of 1262, tudome que nos hy quiser enbargar, where the sense is “to hinder, obstruct”.^[2] Houaiss and Cunha both date the verb to the 13th century.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the verb means “to hinder” and “to trouble, embarrass”, and in the cantigas d'escarnho embargado also means “busy, occupied”: Estevan da Guarda's lawyer says he is embargado and cannot hear him.^[2][14] The noun embargo and desembargar are also of the 13th century, desembargador of the 14th.^[3]

The legal sense, a stop placed on something by a judge's order, was the main one by Bluteau's time: he defines the verb as “to detain, stop, especially by order of the competent judge”, with embargar a sentença and embargar a fazenda.^[15] Morais (1813) lists the seizing of animals, carriages and houses for the king's service and of goods being shipped.^[16] Beside it the figurative “to hold back” lives on: Bluteau has embargar as lagrimas “to hold back one's tears”, and the modern dictionaries cite the voice choked by emotion.^[15][4][17]

Timeline

• 1227 – a Latin decree has embarguent.^[2]
• 1262 – enbargar in a Galician-Portuguese charter.^[2]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use enbargada and enbargados.^[2]
• 1513 – first of the CTA's texts with the verb, the Livro dos Mártires.^[18]
• 1542 – ẽbargei in a private letter.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders the verb with Latin intercēdō.^[20]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives the legal sense first and adds embargar as lagrimas.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as to put an embargo on, to prevent the use of something.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put an embargo on; to place obstacles in the way of, hinder: A greve embargou a chegada dos camiões.^[4][22][12]
2. (law) To stop or suspend something by a legal order: A prefeitura embargou a construção.^[4][23][17]
3. To confiscate or hold something back temporarily.^[23][12][13]
4. To keep from showing; to hold back, repress (an emotion, the voice): A comoção embargou-lhe as palavras.^[4][22][1]
5. (reflexive, of the voice) To become choked, indistinct.^[13]

Word family

• embargo
• embargado
• embargante
• desembargar
• desembargador
• desembargo

Related words

• barra
• Vulgar Latin *barra
• Spanish embargar

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 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. embargar
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. embargar
4. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. embargar
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. embargar
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4277
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *imbarricare
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. embargar
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 516
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 169
11. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 53
12. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. embargar
13. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3404
14. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. embargar
15. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. embargar
16. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 655
17. ^ a b 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. embargar
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. embargar
19. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. embargar
20. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. embargar
21. ^ 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, 468
22. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. embargar
23. ^ a b 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. embargar