escrever

Forms

escrever (first-person singular present escrevo, first-person singular preterite escrevi, past participle escrito)^[1] The Cantigas de Santa Maria write the infinitive escrever, escrevir, escriver and escrivir, the imperfect escrevia and escrivia and the preterite escriviu.^[2] Houaiss records the spelling screueo “wrote” in 1544.^[3] The past participle is escrito; the regular form escrevido has fallen out of use.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin scrībō (“to write”), written Old Galician-Portuguese escrever and Old Galician-Portuguese escrivir in the oldest texts.^[3][5][6][1] Houaiss glosses the Latin verb as “to mark with the stylus, draw a line, engrave, draw, write letters”.^[3]

The same Latin word is Galician escribir, Spanish escribir, Catalan escriure, Occitan escriure, French écrire, Italian scrivere and Romanian scrie.^[7][1]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *skreiβō, from Proto-Indo-European *skreybʰ-.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs the Proto-Indo-European verb with the sense “to carve”, and compares Latvian skrīpât (“to scratch, scribble, write down”) and Old Norse hrífa (“to scratch, tear”).^[8] The DHLF too notes that the Indo-European words related to it mean “to scratch, to incise”, which recalls that early writing was carved or scratched.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria already use the verb for writing down a text: Holy Mary gave someone “a written book” (deu-ll'escrito un lyvro), and a cantiga speaks of what Luke, Matthew “and the others” wrote (os outros escrivir foron).^[2] Houaiss and Cunha both date the word to the 13th century.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Cunha glosses the old senses as “to compose a text, express oneself in writing, engrave”.^[5] Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 renders the verb with Latin scribo and has the phrase escrever por sua mão “to write in one's own hand”.^[10] Bluteau (1712) defines writing as forming with the pen characters that are “portraits of thought and of speech”, and quotes Francisco Rodrigues Lobo's Corte na Aldeia on writing as a way to reach the absent and those yet to come.^[11] Morais (1789) gives three senses: to form the characters that represent words, to compose a work such as a poem or a history, and to write to someone.^[12]

Brazilian Portuguese added popular senses: “to fine” a driver, by writing the number of the car on the ticket, and “to stagger, zigzag”, of a drunk walking or a driver losing control.^[3][4][13] Computing gave it the sense “to write data to a memory or disk”.^[3][14]

Derivatives appear early: escriuidor “writer” in the 14th century, escrevente “clerk” and escrevinhar “to scribble” by 1813.^[5] The verb passed into the Portuguese-based creoles: skrebi in Kabuverdianu, skirbi in Papiamentu and Guinea-Bissau Creole, skeve in Annobonese.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria have the infinitives escrever and escrivir and the participle escrito.^[2]
• 14th century – first record of escriuidor “writer”.^[5]
• 1500 – a private letter in the Post Scriptum corpus has escreveo “wrote”.^[15]
• 1544 – Houaiss records the spelling screueo.^[3]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists escrever por sua mão.^[10]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines the verb and quotes Rodrigues Lobo's Corte na Aldeia.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais gives the senses “form letters”, “compose a work” and “write to someone”.^[12]
• 1813 – first records of escrevente and escrevinhar.^[5]
• 1871 – Vieira defines the verb with quotations from Joana da Gama and Cristóvão Falcão.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To write: to form letters, words or other characters on a surface: Escreveu a morada num papel.^[3][14][17]
2. To express oneself in writing, in a given language or style: Escreve um inglês muito limpo.^[3][14]
3. To compose a literary or scientific work;^[3][18] (intransitive) to be a writer (escritor) by profession.^[3][18]
4. To narrate or describe (descrever) something in writing.^[3][14]
5. (formal) To inscribe, engrave.^[3][19]
6. (Brazil) To fine a driver for a traffic offence, by writing up a ticket.^[3][13]
7. (computing) To write data to a memory, tape or disk.^[3][14]
8. To write a letter or message to someone;^[3][18] (reflexive) to correspond with each other.^[3][18]
9. To write for a newspaper, or work on one as a writer.^[3]
10. (intransitive) To scribble or doodle.^[3][18]
11. (Brazil, informal) To stagger or zigzag, walking or driving.^[3][17][13]
12. (music) To compose: Escreveu três concertos para piano.^[3][18]

Word family

• escrevedor
• escrevente
• escrevinhar
• escrito

Related words

• escritor
• escritura
• descrever
• inscrever
• Latin scrībō
• Galician escribir

Usage notes

The phrase escrever na areia “to write in the sand” means to do something that will not last.^[18][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. escrever
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. escrever
4. ^ a b 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. escrever
5. ^ 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. escrever
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. escrever
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7745
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. écrire
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escrever
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escrever
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. s.v. escrever
13. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. escrever
14. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. escrever
15. ^ 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. escrever
16. ^ 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, 273
17. ^ 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. escrever
18. ^ a b c d e f g Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3809
19. ^ 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. escrever