estar

Forms

estar (first-person singular present estou, first-person singular preterite estive, past participle estado)^[1] The cantigas d'amigo have the old preterite forms estivi and estevestes, the subjunctive estevesse and the future subjunctive estever.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin stō (“to stand”), written Old Galician-Portuguese estar in the oldest texts.^[3][4][5][1] Wiktionary explains the stems ⟨estev-⟩ and ⟨estiv-⟩ of the preterite by a Vulgar Latin perfect *stēvī that took the place of the classical perfect, as in Spanish, and the present subjunctive ⟨esteja⟩ as modelled on ⟨seja⟩ of ser.^[1]

The same Latin verb is Galician estar, Spanish estar, Catalan estar, Occitan estar, Old French ester, Italian stare and Romanian sta.^[6][1] French être continues the Latin verb for “to be” but took some of its forms from the Old French word.^[1] Corominas leaves the history of the uses of the verb to grammar, and finds hard to believe a theory that the Iberian substrate shaped its use.^[7]

The Latin verb comes from *staēō, a stative verb from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”); its cognates include ἵστημι (hístēmi), तिष्ठति (tíṣṭhati) and standan, the source of English stand.^[1][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's earliest date, 1044, is the form esta in a Latin charter.^[3] In the 13th-century cantigas the verb already means to be or stay in a place and to be or feel a certain way at a given moment: the Cancioneiro da Ajuda has estar ben, estar mal and estar en grand affan “to be in great distress”.^[2][4] Universo Cantigas also finds the sense “to stand” and the periphrases with the gerund, with a and an infinitive, and with pera “about to”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The old language also had a noun estar “house, dwelling”, which Universo Cantigas takes as a Provençal word;^[10][11][12] Morais (1813) and Figueiredo (1899) still list it as antiquated, meaning an inn.^[10][11][12] Bluteau gives the verb for being present in a place, estar em pé “to stand”, and estar bem or mal com alguém “to be on good or bad terms with someone”, and Morais adds estar para “to be about to”.^[13][14] Figueiredo calls it an auxiliary verb whose senses only examples can show.^[12]

Today Brazil forms the progressive with estar and the gerund and Portugal with estar a and the infinitive;^[1] Brazilian Portuguese also uses estar com for “to have”.^[1] In north-eastern Brazil só estar means to be surprised at something.^[15] The short form tar is colloquial.^[1]

Timeline

• 1044 – a Latin charter has the form esta.^[3]
• 13th century – the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and the cantigas d'amigo use the verb.^[2][4]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo uses it.^[16]
• 1500 – estou in a private letter.^[17]
• 1697 – Pereira translates it by Latin adsum.^[18]
• 1734 – Feijó gives the present estou, estás, está.^[19]
• 1789 – Morais records estar para “to be about to”.^[14]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the old noun estar as a synonym of estau.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (copulative) To be, in a condition that is not permanent: A sopa está fria.^[3][20][1]
2. (with com) To suffer from or feel: estar com fome.^[3]
3. To be (in a place or at a time), to be found; to be located.^[3][21][1]
4. To visit; to attend: Estivemos na festa.^[3][22]
5. To stay, remain: Esteja aqui até eu voltar.^[3]
6. To suit, go with something: Esse casaco está-lhe bem.^[3][23]
7. To lie in, consist in, depend on.^[3][21]
8. (with para) To be about to; to be in the mood for: não estar para brincadeiras.^[3][14]
9. To be dressed in: estar de preto.^[3][20]
10. To cost or stand at (a price or amount): O pão está a dois euros.^[3][23][1]
11. (auxiliary) With a gerund (Brazil) or a and an infinitive (Portugal), forms the progressive.^[1]
12. (Brazil) (with com) To have, to have with one.^[1]

Word family

• estada
• estadia

Related words

• estábulo
• estante
• Latin stō
• Spanish estar

Usage notes

Estar and ser both mean “to be”: estar is used of states that are expected to change.^[1][3] Fixed phrases include estar a fim de “to want to” (Brazil), estar em si “to be in one's right mind” and estar fora de si “to be beside oneself”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. estar
3. ^ 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. estar
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. estar
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. estar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. stare
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 776
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sto
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c 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. estar
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 772
12. ^ a b c d Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 563
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estar
14. ^ 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, 60
15. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. estar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. estar
17. ^ 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. estar
18. ^ 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. estar
19. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estar
20. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. estar
21. ^ 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. estar
22. ^ 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. estar
23. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3950