encontrar

Forms

encontrar (first-person singular present encontro, first-person singular preterite encontrei, past participle encontrado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin incontrō (“to meet”), written Old Galician-Portuguese encontrar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Houaiss and the DLP take the Latin verb as Late Latin, Nascentes as Medieval Latin, while Cunha, Aurélio and Wiktionary mark it as unrecorded, a reconstruction.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} All agree that it was formed on in (“in, into”) and contrā (“facing, against”);^[2][4][1][7] Nascentes calls it a calque of the Latin phrase.^[2][4][1][7]

The same Latin verb is Spanish encontrar, Old French encontrer and Italian incontrare.^[1][8]

The Latin preposition comes from *komterād, a form of *komteros (“the other of two who meet, opposite”), built on Proto-Indo-European *ḱom- (“with”).^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][5] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a man encontrou un menỹo “met a boy”, and in the Crónica Troiana Hector and his foe encontraronsse anbos et lydaron moy durament “clashed and fought very hard”: the first sense is meeting face to face, often as enemies.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The medieval verb meant “to meet, come upon” and “to clash with”; the Livro da Montaria says men-at-arms must know how to encontrar, that is, to strike with the lance.^[10] Morais (1813) gives “to collide with, push”, “to bring together” (nature encontrou someone's eyebrows), “to set debts against each other” (encontrar contas) and “to go against, offend” (things that encontrão as Leis).^[11] Today the commonest sense is “to find”, and the reflexive encontrar-se also means “to be (somewhere or in a state)”.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records; the Cantigas de Santa Maria have encontrou un menỹo.^[2][5][10]
• 1569 – first record of the noun encontro.^[5]
• 16th century – first record of encontradiço “often met”.^[5]
• 17th century – first record of desencontro.^[5]
• 1813 – Morais gives the senses “to collide”, “to set off debts” and “to oppose”; first record of encontrão “shove”.^[11][5]
• 1858 – first record of reencontro, and of reencontrar in 1871.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To find what one was looking for: Finalmente encontrei as chaves.^[2][6][1]
2. To come across by chance, meet: Encontrei o teu irmão no mercado.^[2][3][1]
3. To discover, hit upon (a solution, an answer).^[2][6]
4. To collide with, run into: O camião encontrou o muro.^[2][6]
5. To find (someone or something) in a certain state: Encontrei-a mais animada.^[2]
6. To meet with, receive (support, resistance, criticism).^[2][3]
7. (encontrar com, encontrar-se com) To meet up with someone.^[2][1]
8. (reflexive) To be, be located: O museu encontra-se fechado.^[2][1]
9. (reflexive, figurative) To find oneself, find one's calling.^[1]

Word family

• desencontro
• encontradiço
• reencontrar
• reencontro
• encontrão

Related words

• desencontrar
• encontro
• contra
• Spanish encontrar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. encontrar
3. ^ a b c d 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. encontrar
4. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. encontrar
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. encontrar
6. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. encontrar
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. encontrar
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. encontrar
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. ^ 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. encontrar
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 686