enfiar

Forms

enfiar (first-person singular present enfio, first-person singular preterite enfiei, past participle enfiado)^[1] Cunha records infiar in the 16th century, and a Galician document from Rianjo has jnfiou.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese en- + fio + -ar, “to put on a thread”.^[4][1][5][6] The noun, Old Galician-Portuguese fio in the oldest texts, continues Latin fīlum (“thread”).^[1] The Spanish counterpart is enfilar.^[7]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *fī(s)lo- and Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰiH-(s-)lo- (“sinew, sinew thread”).^[8][1] Its cognates include Lithuanian gysla (“vein, sinew”), Proto-Slavic *žìla (“vein”) and Old Armenian ջիլ (ǰil, “sinew, cord”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 13th century.^[4] Lorenzo found both the literal sense “to put a thread through a hole” and a figurative one, “to link, join”, among the oldest records, with enffiado in 1305.^[3] In charters of Noia of 1412 the verb describes a boundary line that runs straight on to a stone or a chestnut tree (a qual enfía en outro seyxo).^[3]

Semantic evolution

In medieval documents from Rianjo it means “to send someone before the judge”.^[3] Viterbo explains it as “to compel” and “to send before the judge someone who has been fined”.^[9] The DDGM traces these uses to the sense “to set things one after another”, and so “to head for a place”.^[3]

Cardoso (1569) and Pereira (1697) give only the sense of passing a thread through something.^[10][11] Morais (1789) adds threading rosary beads, making someone go pale with fear, taking up the thread of an interrupted speech and telling things one after another.^[12] Vieira has “to enter”, and Figueiredo (1899) adds putting on clothes and shoes, turning pale, fainting and heading straight for a place.^[13][14] In Portugal the fishermen of one region use it for fastening the meshes of a net to a rope or a hoop.^[15]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, according to Houaiss.^[4]
• 1305 – enffiado “linked”.^[3]
• 1412 – enfiar and enfía of a boundary line in Noia.^[3]
• 16th century – the form infiar.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin filum transmitto.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais records the senses “to turn pale with fear” and “to tell one thing after another”.^[12]
• 1899 – Figueiredo adds “to put on clothes or shoes”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To thread, to pass a thread through a hole: enfiar a linha na agulha.^[4][6][1]
2. To string beads, pearls or the like on a thread; to set in a row.^[4][6]
3. To push into or through, to insert: Enfiou as mãos nos bolsos do casaco.^[4][1]
4. To drive in with force; to run someone or something through.^[4][16]
5. To put on clothes or shoes.^[4][6]
6. (informal) To eat or drink a great deal, or without stopping.^[4]
7. (Brazil, figurative) To tell one thing after another without a pause.^[4]
8. To go into, to head along a street or path; to travel along a road.^[4][5]
9. (reflexive) To get in, to slip through, as light through a crack.^[4][17]
10. (informal) To hit someone or something with an object.^[4]
11. (intransitive) To turn pale, to be upset.^[14][17]

Word family

• enfiada
• enfiado
• enfiador
• enfiadura
• enfiamento
• enfiação

Related words

• fio
• fileira
• Latin fīlum
• Spanish enfilar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fio
3. ^ 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. enfiar
4. ^ 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. enfiar
5. ^ 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. enfiar
6. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. enfiar
7. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. enfiar
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. 1, 403
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. enfiar
11. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. enfiar
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, 497
13. ^ 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, 134
14. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 501
15. ^ 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. enfiar
16. ^ 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. enfiar
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. enfiar