escambar

Forms

escambar (first-person singular present escambo, first-person singular preterite escambei, past participle escambado)^[1] Houaiss records escambar, scambar and scanbhar in the 14th century.^[2] Michaelis gives escambiar as a variant.^[3]

Etymology

Houaiss, Aurélio and Michaelis form it from Portuguese escambo + -ar.^[2][4][3] The noun escambo, “barter”, is recorded from the 13th century as Old Galician-Portuguese escambo, escanbho and escaymbo.^[5][6] Houaiss takes it from an earlier *escâmbio, from the prefix es- and câmbio.^[5][6] cambiar, from cambiō (“to exchange”), had a parallel form cambar until the 16th century.^[7]

The DLP and the Porto Editora dictionary derive it from *excambiō, formed on the Latin verb,^[8][9] and Wiktionary calls it an alteration of escambiar, from that Latin verb.^[1] Cunha lists that verb, “to exchange”, with the forms escanbhar (13th century) and scanbhar, scanbar (14th century).^[6] The Vulgar Latin verb is also Italian scambiare, French échanger, Romanian schimba and Occitan escambiar.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 14th century, from the medieval index, in the sense “to exchange, barter”.^[2] The Ordenações quoted by Bluteau have it in the same sense: se quizesse vender, ou escambar “if he wished to sell or barter”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) gives the verb Latin equivalents meaning “to slip, fall”, and Pereira (1697) sends the reader to descambar, a verb that the old dictionaries mixed with this one.^[12][13] Bluteau and Feijó again have the sense “to exchange”.^[11][14] Morais (1813) and Caldas Aulete label the verb archaic,^[15][16] and Figueiredo (1899) calls it disused, with a regional sense “to move from (a place)”.^[17] The DLP records the regional senses “to lean to one side” and “to change place”.^[8] In Brazil the verb is in use for barter, trading without money.^[18]

Timeline

• 13th century – escambo and Cunha's escanbhar are recorded.^[5][6]
• 14th century – first record of escambar, also scambar and scanbhar.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso enters escambar with the sense “to slip, fall”.^[12]
• 1697 – Pereira refers escambar to descambar.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as to exchange.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais labels it archaic.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To barter; to exchange one thing for another, without money: escambavam peles por sal.^{[2][8][18][1]}
2. To change or exchange in general (cambiar).^[4][19]
3. (regional) To lean to one side; to move from one place to another.^[8][17]

Related words

• escambo
• câmbio
• cambiar
• intercâmbio

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. escambar
3. ^ a b 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. escambar
4. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. escambar
5. ^ a b c Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. escambo
6. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cambiar
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cambiar
8. ^ 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. escambar
9. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3763
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2949
11. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escambar
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escambar
13. ^ a b 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. escambar
14. ^ 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. escambar
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 735
16. ^ 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. escambar
17. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. p. 533
18. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. escambar
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. escambar