esperar

Forms

esperar (first-person singular present espero, first-person singular preterite esperei, past participle esperado)^[1] Old texts also have asperar, recorded from the 13th century, and sperado in the 15th.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spērō (“to hope”), written Old Galician-Portuguese esperar and Old Galician-Portuguese asperar in the oldest texts.^[3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from spēs (“hope”).^[3][1][5] In Portuguese, as in Spanish, the verb also took on the meaning of exspectō (“to wait for”).^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Galician esperar, Spanish esperar, Catalan esperar, French espérer and Italian sperare.^[8][1] The variant with ⟨a-⟩ was widespread in Old Spanish too, and survives in many dialects.^[9]

De Vaan traces the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *spéh₁s (“prosperity”), from the root *speh₁-, which also gave spėti (“to be in time”) and спѣти (spěti, “to succeed”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Lorenzo's chronology date the verb to the 13th century.^[3][2] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the Virgin tells a man non esperes a cras “don't wait until tomorrow”, and another cantiga speaks of the Virgin de que gran merce' espero “from whom I hope for great mercy”: both senses, “to wait” and “to hope”, are there from the start.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 gives only Latin spero “I hope”, but Barbosa in 1611 translates esperar by expecto and opperior “I wait”.^[11][12] Folqman (1755) separates the two senses, “to have hope” and “to await someone”.^[13] Morais (1813) adds “to be ready to receive someone” and the threat a forca te espera “the gallows await you”.^[14]

Houaiss also records the senses “to expect, to suppose” and “to be pregnant” (está esperando).^[3] In Brazil, Priberam notes, it can mean to parry a blow or stand on guard.^[15]

Timeline

• 13th century – esperar and asperar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• c. 1450 – the Livro das tres vertudes (witness after 1450) uses the verb.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Esperar by Latin spero.^[11]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives the senses “to wait” and “to await”.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais records the noun espera.^[4]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira defines it as waiting for a good that one desires and sees as likely.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hope for, to trust in: Esperamos dias melhores.^[3][1]
2. To wait for, to await; to stay until something happens: Espero por ti à porta.^[3][18][1]
3. To count on, to wish that something happens.^[3][19]
4. To lie in store for someone.^[3][20]
5. To expect, to suppose that something is likely.^[3][1]
6. To be pregnant, to expect a child.^[3]
7. (Brazil) To parry a blow; to stand on guard.^[15]

Word family

• desesperado
• desesperador
• desesperança
• desesperar
• desespero
• espera
• esperança
• esperançado
• esperançar
• esperançoso
• esperável
• inesperado

Related words

• Latin spērō
• Galician esperar

Usage notes

Esperar por sapatos de defunto, literally “to wait for a dead man's shoes”, means to wait for something unlikely to come.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. esperar
3. ^ 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. esperar
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. esperar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. spērō
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 191
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. esperar
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8141
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 740
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. esperar
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. esperar
13. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. esperar
14. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 758
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. esperar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. esperar
17. ^ 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, 336
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. esperar
19. ^ 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. esperar
20. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3883