espremer

Forms

espremer (first-person singular present espremo, first-person singular preterite espremi, past participle espremido)^[1] Houaiss records the 15th-century spelling spremer, without the initial vowel.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *expremō, from Latin exprimō (“to press out, squeeze”).^[1][2] Houaiss, Cunha, Nascentes and the DLP derive it directly from the Latin verb.^[2][3][4][5] Silva Bastos and Figueiredo derived it instead from the simple verb premō (“to press”).^[6][7] Houaiss and Wiktionary treat it as the popular doublet of the learned exprimir.^[2][1]

The same Latin verb gave Italian spremere, French épreindre, Catalan esprémer and Romanian screme.^[8] García de Diego lists Galician espremer, also Leonese, beside the Spanish exprimir, which he calls a learned word.^[9]

The Latin word is formed with ex- (“out”) and the simple verb.^[10][1] De Vaan traces the simple verb's perfect and participle to Proto-Indo-European *pr-es- (“to press”), and explains the present stem as remodelled after tremō.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 14th century from the slips of the index of medieval Portuguese, while Cunha's first record is from the 16th.^[2][3] The sense in the oldest dictionaries is the physical one: Cardoso glosses it with the Latin exprimo in 1569, and Barbosa in 1611 with premo and exprimo, quoting Pliny's “to squeeze out wine with the hands”.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defines the verb as making a liquid come out by pressing and squeezing.^[14] Morais in 1813 adds figurative uses from the classical authors: making words or tears come out, and pressing people hard for payment, as in Couto's espremer o povo “to squeeze the people” with taxes.^[15] Modern dictionaries keep these and add “to go through a matter exhaustively”, “to interrogate someone relentlessly” and “to cram a text into less space”.^[2][16]

The reflexive verb means to strain to expel something, and also to speak in an affected way.^[2][17][6] Regional records in the TLPGP use it for treading grapes in Portugal and for pressing grated cassava in the making of flour in Brazil.^[18]

Timeline

• 14th century – Houaiss's first date, from the slips of the index of medieval Portuguese.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling spremer.^[2]
• 16th century – Cunha's first record.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has Espremer, glossed with the Latin exprimo.^[12]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as forcing a liquid out by pressing.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais adds the figurative senses “to make come out” and “to press people for taxes”.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To squeeze or press something to get its juice or liquid out: espremer limões.^[2][19][1]
2. To press or compress;^[2][20] (reflexive) to squeeze together, to crowd into a small space.^[2][20]
3. To squeeze out, to expel by pressure.^[2][17]
4. (figurative) To leave nothing out of a matter; to exhaust a subject.^[2][16]
5. (figurative) To interrogate someone insistently and under pressure.^[2]
6. (figurative) To oppress, especially by overcharging or heavy taxes.^[2][20]
7. (figurative) To shorten a text or set it in smaller type so that it fits a given space.^[2]
8. (reflexive) To strain to expel something from the body.^[2][21]
9. (reflexive) To speak in an affected way.^[17][6]

Word family

• espremedor
• espremedura

Related words

• exprimir
• Latin exprimō

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 i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. espremer
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. espremer
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. espremer
5. ^ 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. espremer
6. ^ a b c Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. espremer
7. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. espremer
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3057
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. exprimere
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. exprimō
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. espremer
13. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. espremer
14. ^ 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. espremer
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 765
16. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. espremer
17. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. espremer
18. ^ 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. espremer
19. ^ 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. espremer
20. ^ a b c 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. espremer
21. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3918