ensinar

Forms

ensinar (first-person singular present ensino, first-person singular preterite ensinei, past participle ensinado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *īnsignō (“to mark, point out”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ensinar and Old Galician-Portuguese enssinar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] The Vulgar Latin verb took the place of Latin īnsigniō (“to put a mark on, distinguish”), from īnsignis (“conspicuous”), built on signum (“mark, sign”).^[2][3][5][6] Wiktionary derives it from signō (“to mark”), and notes that the form is also found in Medieval Latin.^[1] Nascentes explains the sense “to teach” from “to engrave a sign, to point out”, and notes that the word replaced the Latin verb doceō.^[5] In this semi-learned word the /g/ of ⟨gn⟩ fell, as in sino from the same Latin noun, instead of becoming the ⟨nh⟩ of popular words.^[7]

The same Vulgar Latin verb is Galician ensinar, Spanish enseñar, Catalan ensenyar, Occitan ensenhar, French enseigner, Italian insegnare and Romanian însemna, which means “to mean” in Romanian.^[8][1] French had the sense “to make known by a sign” from 1050 and “to instruct” from about 1165.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use the verb for teaching: people went to ask that he should teach them the truth (que a verdad'enssinar / lles fosse), and a friar taught someone a verse very quickly (o vesso muit'agỹa que ll'o frad'enssinou).^[4] The Crónica Troiana keeps the older sense “to point out”: todos nos ensinaran con o dedo “everyone would point at us with their finger”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Cunha dates ensinado and ensinamento to the 13th century, ensinança and ensino to the 14th and ensinador to the 15th.^[3] The early dictionaries gloss the verb with Latin doceo and erudio, and Barbosa (1611) adds ensinar publicamente “to teach in public”, a teacher's profession.^[10][11] Morais (1813) records the training of horses and dogs (cavallo ensinado), the sense “to teach a lesson, chastise” and the sense “to show” the way.^[12] Figueiredo marks “to inspire” as obsolete.^[13] The senses “to punish” and “to show” are still in the modern dictionaries.^[14][15][16]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, spelt enssinar.^[4][3]
• 13th century – ensinado and ensinamento.^[3]
• 14th century – ensinança and ensino.^[3]
• c. 1430 – ensinar in the Horto do Esposo (witness of 1390–1437).^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses the verb with Latin doceo and erudio.^[10]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists ensinar publicamente.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais records cavallo ensinado and the sense “to chastise”.^[12]
• 1899 – Figueiredo derives the verb from a Low Latin insignare, from signum.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To teach, pass on knowledge or a skill to someone: Ensinou-me a jogar xadrez.^[2][16][1]
2. To teach a subject, give lessons, as a profession: Ensina história num liceu.^[18][14]
3. To show, point out: Ensinou-nos a saída.^[16][14]
4. To train (an animal).^[16][14][12]
5. To teach (someone) a lesson; to punish.^[14][15]

Word family

• ensinado
• ensinador
• ensinamento
• ensinança
• ensino

Related words

• sinal
• sino
• signo
• insígnia
• Latin signum
• Galician ensinar
• Spanish enseñar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ensinar
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ensinar
4. ^ a b c d 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. ensinar
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ensinar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. insignis
7. ^ Williams, Edwin B. (1938), From Latin to Portuguese: Historical Phonology and Morphology of the Portuguese Language, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. § 92.5
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4462
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. enseigner
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ensinar
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ensinar
12. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 707
13. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. ensinar
14. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ensinar
15. ^ 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. ensinar
16. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ensinar
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ensinar
18. ^ 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. ensinar