enganar

Forms

enganar (first-person singular present engano, first-person singular preterite enganei, past participle enganado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ingannō (“to mock, to trick”), written Old Galician-Portuguese enganar already in the oldest texts.^[2][1][3][4] Wiktionary takes it from the early medieval Latin verb recorded in the Reichenau glosses, and Corominas dates its record to shortly before the 9th century.^[1][5] The Latin verb is formed from in- and *gannō, from ganniō (“to yelp, to snarl”), which Houaiss glosses as the yelping of dogs, the barking of foxes and the chirping of birds, and also murmuring and grumbling.^[6][2] The Vulgar Latin verb first meant “to mock”, and the snarling of the simple verb lies behind that sense.^[2][5] García de Diego and the REW cite the related noun gannātor (“mocker”).^[7][8]

The same verb is Galician enganar, Spanish engañar, Catalan enganyar, Occitan enganar and Italian ingannare, and Romanian îngâna has the sense “to imitate”.^[8][1] The simple Latin verb survives as ganir and Spanish gañir, “to yelp”, and Corominas notes that it was kept only in these two languages.^[8][9]

De Vaan considers the Latin verb onomatopoeic, and finds its likeliest comparanda in Slavic words for speaking through the nose, such as Russian гугнивый (gugnivyj).^[10][1] Figueiredo (1899) and Silva Bastos (1912) derived the Portuguese verb from the Italian one.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology moves the first record, which Machado had dated to the 14th and the 16th century, back to the Cantigas de Santa Maria: polo tost' enganar “to deceive him quickly” and son muit' enganados / os que nas omagẽes de pedra queren creer “those who would believe in images of stone are much deceived”.^[13] In a cantiga d'escarnho of Alfonso X the verb means “to lure, to entice”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) translates the verb with Latin fallo and decipio, and Bluteau defines it as to lead someone artfully into error, also “to cheat someone of something”.^[14][15] Morais (1813) adds enganar as horas “to make the hours pass unnoticed”, and, quoting Camões, enganar a saudade and enganar a dor, “to beguile one's longing or pain”.^[16] Today one also says enganar a fome “to stave off hunger”.^[17][2]

The verb also came to mean “to seduce (a girl) with a false promise of marriage” and “to be unfaithful to (a spouse)”.^[2][4][18] Regional dictionaries of Portugal record the sense “to deflower” as very common, and a folk quatrain says Enganar uma donzela / Prometer-lhe casamento / E depois não casar com ela.^[19] The verb passed through Old Tupi into Nheengatu as ganani.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – enganar and enganados in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[13][2]
• 13th century – engano “deceit”.^[20]
• c. 1430 – enganar in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[21]
• 1542 – a private letter writes ẽganar.^[22]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it fallo, decipio, impono.^[14]
• 1755 – Folqman lists enganar-se “to err” and se me não engano “unless I am mistaken”.^[23]
• 1813 – Morais records enganar as horas.^[16]
• 1899 – Figueiredo derives the verb from Italian.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To deceive, to mislead; to make someone believe what is not true: O vendedor enganou os clientes.^[2][18][1]
2. To cheat, to swindle.^[2][18][1]
3. To give a false impression, not to be what it seems: as aparências enganam “appearances are deceptive”.^[2][18]
4. To relieve or beguile (hunger, pain, time): enganar a fome.^[2][17]
5. To seduce (a girl) with false promises.^[2][4][18]
6. To be unfaithful to (a spouse or partner).^[4][18]
7. (pronominal) To be mistaken, to make a mistake: Enganei-me no caminho.^[2][18][1]
8. (pronominal) To deceive oneself.^[18][1]

Word family

• engano
• enganador
• enganação
• enganoso
• desenganar
• desengano

Related words

• ganir
• Galician enganar
• Spanish engañar

Usage notes

The proverb as aparências enganam “appearances are deceptive” is recorded by Aurélio.^[18] Se não me engano “if I am not mistaken” is a common formula, already in Folqman's dictionary as se me não engano.^[23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. enganar
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. enganar
4. ^ 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. enganar
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. engañar
6. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. inganno
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *ingannare
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 79
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ganniō
11. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão
12. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira
13. ^ 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. enganar
14. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
16. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 696
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. enganar
18. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. enganar
19. ^ 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. enganar
20. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. engano
21. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. enganar
22. ^ 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. enganar
23. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)