esquecer

Forms

esquecer (first-person singular present esqueço, first-person singular preterite esqueci, past participle esquecido)^[1] The old forms are escaecer and escaeçer (13th century), esquecer (14th) and esqueecer (15th).^[2][3] The cantigas also have escaescer.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *excadēscō, written Old Galician-Portuguese escaecer in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][5] Houaiss and Cunha call the Vulgar Latin verb a frequentative, Nascentes an inchoative, of *excadō (“to fall out”), which is ex- with cadō (“to fall”).^[2][3][5][6] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱad- (“to fall”).^[1][7] The verb replaced the Latin oblīvīscor.^[5]

Between the old and the modern form the sources show an intermediate Old Galician-Portuguese esqueecer: Nascentes speaks of an assimilation in the group ⟨sc⟩ and a contraction of the vowels in hiatus ⟨ae⟩.^[8][9][1]

The same Vulgar Latin verb is Galician esquecer and Old Spanish escaecer “to forget”; in the other Romance languages its descendants mean “to decline”, “to fall due” or “to befall”, as Italian scadere.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb, as escaecer, is recorded from the 13th century.^[2][3] It is frequent in the cantigas d'amor, as in Pero Garcia Burgalês's dona que me fezess' escaecer “a lady who would make me forget” and João Soares Somesso's que me fez tod' escaecer “who made me forget everything”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The derivative escaecimento “forgetting” is as old as the verb.^[3] Morais (1789) records, beside the transitive and reflexive uses, an intransitive sense “to lose feeling” (esqueceu-me um braço “my arm went numb”), which the Porto dictionary still lists as little used.^[11][12] Modern usage adds “to leave something behind by oversight”, “to neglect, disregard” and, in the reflexive, “to be lost in thought”.^[13][12][2] The adjective inesquecível “unforgettable” is of the 20th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records as escaecer, and of escaecimento.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the form esquecer.^[2]
• 15th century – the form esqueecer.^[2][3]
• 1503 – esqueçeo in a private letter.^[14]
• 1697 – Pereira renders Esquecer by Latin e memoria excidere “to fall out of the memory”.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais records the sense “to lose feeling”.^[11]
• 20th century – first record of inesquecível.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To forget, to lose the memory of: esqueci o nome dele;^[2][9][1] esqueceu-se da reunião.^[2][9][1]
2. To put out of mind on purpose; not to think about: tenta esquecer o desgosto.^[2][16]
3. To neglect, disregard: esqueceu os seus deveres.^[9][12]
4. To leave something somewhere by oversight: esqueci o guarda-chuva no autocarro.^[13][16]
5. (intransitive) To slip from the memory: o recado esqueceu-me.^[17][13]
6. (intransitive, little used) To lose feeling, go numb.^[12][11]
7. (reflexive) To be absorbed in something, forgetting all else.^[12][13]

Word family

• esquecimento
• esquecido
• inesquecível

Related words

• Latin cadō
• cair
• Galician esquecer
• Old Spanish escaecer

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 e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. esquecer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. esquecer
4. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. escaecer
5. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. esquecer
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2944
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 193
9. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. esquecer
10. ^ 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. escaecer
11. ^ a b c 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, 55
12. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3923
13. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. esquecer
14. ^ 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. esquecer
15. ^ 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. esquecer
16. ^ 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. esquecer
17. ^ 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. esquecer