escutar

Forms

escutar (first-person singular present escuto, first-person singular preterite escutei, past participle escutado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote ascuitar, ascuytar and ascoitar in the 13th century, and escuitar and escoytar in the 14th;^[2][3] Cunha first finds escutar in the 16th century.^[2][3] The glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda notes that ascoitar was still much used in the 16th century, beside escuitar.^[4] Escuitar lives on in the speech of Rio Grande do Sul.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin ascultō, the popular form of Latin auscultō (“to listen attentively”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ascuitar and Old Galician-Portuguese ascoitar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][6] Nascentes explains the changes: the first vowel of ⟨au-⟩ was lost by dissimilation, the ⟨l⟩ was vocalised, the diphthong ⟨ui⟩ was reduced to ⟨u⟩ as in chuva, and ⟨as-⟩ became ⟨es-⟩ by analogy with other words.^[7] The learned auscultar is a doublet, taken directly from the Latin verb.^[2][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician escoitar, Spanish escuchar, Catalan escoltar, French écouter, Italian ascoltare and Romanian asculta.^[8][9] Old Spanish had ascuchar beside the form with ⟨es-⟩.^[10]

Wiktionary derives the Latin verb from *auskoltā, a compound of ⟨aus-⟩, the old stem of auris (“ear”), and Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”); others take the second part from *ḱel- (“to incline”).^[1] The Oxford Latin Dictionary likewise compares clueō (“to be spoken of”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The troubadours used the verb for “to listen”: Airas Nunes hid himself to listen to a shepherdess (e ascondi-me pola ascuitar), and Rui Fernandes de Santiago has Ca lhi nom querrei ascuitar “for I will not listen to him”.^[12] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have both ascoitar and ascuitar.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 notes that the Latin verb could also mean “to obey”, and Bluteau defined the Portuguese one in 1712 as giving ear to someone who speaks.^[13][14] Bluteau also recorded escutar-se, said of a man who listens to himself while he speaks, pleased with his own words.^[14]

Today the verb means hearing with attention, as against simply hearing, and also heeding advice and eavesdropping.^[2][15] In informal use it also means “to listen to the chest with a stethoscope”, the sense of its learned doublet.^[2][16] Brazilian dictionaries also give it the plain sense of ouvir “to hear”.^[17]

Timeline

• 13th century – ascuitar and ascuytar.^[2][3]
• 14th century – escuitar and escoytar.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the noun ascoyta, later escuta.^[3]
• after 1450 – escuitar in the Livro das tres vertudes.^[18]
• 16th century – first record of escutar.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses escutar with Latin ausculto.^[19]
• 1712 – Bluteau records escutar-se.^[14]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives the verb from Latin auscultare.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To listen to, to be aware of what one hears.^[2][1]
2. To pay attention to, to give a hearing to.^[2][17]
3. To try hard to hear.^[2]
4. To heed (advice, someone's opinion): Nunca escuta a mãe.^[2][15]
5. To eavesdrop on, to listen in secret.^[2][15]
6. (informal, medicine) To auscultate, to listen to (the heart or lungs).^[2][16]
7. To hear, to perceive by the ear.^[17][1]
8. (reflexive) To listen to oneself; to follow only one's own opinions.^[2][14]

Word family

• escuta
• escutador

Related words

• auscultar
• Latin auscultō
• Galician escoitar
• Spanish escuchar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. escutar
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. escutar
4. ^ a b 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. ascoitar
5. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. escutar
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. escutar
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 187
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 802
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. auscultare
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 713
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. ascuitar
13. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escutar
14. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escutar
15. ^ a b c 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. escutar
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. escutar
17. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. escutar
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. escuitar
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escutar
20. ^ 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, 296