empenhar

Forms

empenhar (first-person singular present empenho, first-person singular preterite empenhei, past participle empenhado)^[1] Feijó (1734) sets empenhar against the spelling empinhar.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin *impignō, a Late Latin verb reconstructed from Latin pignus (“pledge, pawn”).^[3][4][5][1] Compare Spanish empeñar and Italian impegnare.^[1] The Latin noun itself gave penhor.^[6]

Others see a formation within Portuguese.^[7][8] Aurélio derives the verb from the prefix em-, the old noun Old Galician-Portuguese penho, from the same Latin noun, and the suffix -ar.^[7] Nascentes explains that the Latin noun gave Old Galician-Portuguese penhos, from which a new singular was re-formed when the -s was taken for a plural ending.^[8] Corominas likewise derives the Spanish verb (c. 1140) from the old noun Old Spanish peños (“pledge”).^[9] Vieira, Figueiredo and Silva Bastos derived the verb from empenho, but Houaiss takes the noun as a back-formation from the verb, recorded only from 1690.^[10][11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 15th century from the slips of Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[3] Cunha's own dictionary dates it only to the 17th.^[13] A private letter of 1541 has the participle ẽpenhado, and Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders the verb by Latin oppignero "to pledge".^[14][15] The first sense is the legal one: to give something as a pledge for a debt.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) and Bluteau give only the sense "to give in pledge, to pawn".^[16][17] Folqman (1755) already has empenhar a sua palavra "to pledge one's word", empenhar-se "to get into debt" and empenhar-se muito em alguma cousa "to devote great effort to something".^[18] Morais (1813) adds "to make someone take a cause upon himself" and "to strive for something".^[19]

From pledging goods the verb thus passed to pledging one's word or honour, and then to committing oneself and one's efforts to an end.^[3][20] In public administration empenhar means to commit an item of expenditure to its budget allocation.^[3] The derivative desempenhar first meant "to redeem a pledge" (1545).^[21]

Timeline

• 15th century – first record, from the slips of Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[3]
• 1541 – the participle ẽpenhado in a private letter.^[14]
• 1545 – first record of desempenhar.^[21]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders empenhar by Latin oppignero.^[15]
• 1690 – first record of the noun empenho.^[12]
• 1755 – Folqman records empenhar a sua palavra and empenhar-se "to get into debt".^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To pawn, give as a pledge or security for a debt; to mortgage (hipotecar): empenhou o anel.^[3][22][1]
2. (pronominal) To get into debt.^[3][23][1]
3. (transitive, pronominal) To pledge oneself morally by a promise;^[3][22][1] empenhar a palavra, to give one's word.^[3][22][1]
4. (transitive, pronominal) To apply oneself or one's efforts with zeal; to strive: empenhou-se em acabar a obra.^[3][20][1]
5. (transitive) To force or drive someone to act.^[3][7][1]
6. (transitive) To expose, put at risk.^[23][5]
7. (public administration) To commit an item of public expenditure to its budget allocation.^[3]

Word family

• empenhado
• empenho
• desempenhar

Related words

• penhor
• penhorar
• Latin pignus
• Spanish empeñar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. empenhar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. empenhar
4. ^ 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. empenhar
5. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3451
6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. penhor
7. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. empenhar
8. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 171
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. empeñar
10. ^ 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, 84
11. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. empenhar
12. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. empenho
13. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. empenhar
14. ^ a b 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. empenhar
15. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. empenhar
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. empenhar
17. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. empenhar
18. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. empenhar
19. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 668
20. ^ 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. empenhar
21. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. desempenhar
22. ^ 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. empenhar
23. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. empenhar