esposar

Forms

esposar (first-person singular present esposo, first-person singular preterite esposei, past participle esposado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin spōnsō (“to betroth, promise in marriage”).^[2][3][1][4] Nascentes considers the word semi-learned, and notes that it replaced Latin nūbō (“to marry”).^[4]

The same Latin verb is Spanish esposar, Catalan esposar, Occitan esposar, French épouser and Italian sposare.^[5][1] The Latin verb is post-classical: the OLD and Lewis & Short cite it from the Digest, and in Medieval Latin it meant “to marry” and “to marry off”.^[6][7][8] It is formed on spōnsus, the past participle of spondeō (“to promise solemnly, pledge”), according to Houaiss; the OLD forms it on spōnsa (“bride”), and Wiktionary allows either.^[2][6][1] The French historical dictionary traces spondeō to Proto-Indo-European *spend- (“to pour a libation, promise”), the root of Ancient Greek σπένδω (spéndō).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's date of 1124 is a Latin legal text with the Romance verb in it, hominem de fora parte que esposar mulier de caualeiro “a man from outside who marries a knight's wife”.^[2][10] The first Galician-Portuguese records are of the 13th century, the century Cunha gives: in the Cantigas de Santa Maria a girl's father and mother a foron mui sen seu grad' esposar “betrothed her quite against her will”, and the Fuero Real speaks of a woman esposada “betrothed” but not yet married.^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval texts the verb means both “to betroth” and “to marry”, and the Crónica Geral uses esposados of a couple who then received the blessing in church the next day.^[10] Cardoso (1569) and Pereira (1697) gloss it with Latin despondeo “to promise in marriage”.^[11][12] Morais (1789) defines it as the priest's act of marrying the betrothed.^[13]

Vieira (1871) adds the figurative sense “to support, sustain”.^[14] The old Caldas Aulete quotes Castilho for the poplar that esposa the vines and Rui Barbosa for esposar an agitation, that is, to take up a cause.^[15] Cunha gives the sense “to accept an idea, adopt a party” as an extension of the first.^[3] In parts of Portugal the verb was recorded for “to court”.^[16]

Timeline

• 1124 – a Latin legal text uses esposar.^[10]
• 1200s – esposar and esposado in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[10][3]
• 1300s – the spelling sposar.^[2]
• 1500s – first record of desposar.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses esposar with Latin despondeo.^[11]
• 1871 – Vieira records the sense “support, sustain”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To join in marriage: esposou-os um padre da aldeia.^[2][17][18]
2. (transitive) To take as wife or husband; to wed (desposar).^[2][17]
3. (pronominal) To get married.^[2][17][1]
4. (transitive) To take (a task) into one's care.^[2][17][19]
5. (transitive) To support (climbing plants); to sustain.^[17][18][19]
6. (transitive) To espouse, adopt, defend (a cause, an idea).^[17][18][20]

Word family

• desposar
• esposamento
• esposório

Related words

• esposo
• esposa
• esponsal
• esponsalício
• French épouser

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. esposar
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. esposar
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. esposar
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. sponsare
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sponsō
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. sponso
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. sponsare
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. épouser
10. ^ a b c d e 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. esposar
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. esposar
12. ^ 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. esposar
13. ^ 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. 1, 54
14. ^ a b 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, 362
15. ^ 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. esposar
16. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. esposar
17. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. esposar
18. ^ 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. esposar
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. esposar
20. ^ 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. esposar