estranhar

Forms

estranhar (first-person singular present estranho, first-person singular preterite estranhei, past participle estranhado)^[1] The cantigas also have the forms estraiar and estrãiar.^[2] Wiktionary lists extranhar as an alternative spelling.^[1]

Etymology

Houaiss has it inherited from Late Latin extrāneō (“to treat as a stranger”), and the glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda gives the same Late Latin verb as its source.^[3][4] The Portuguese dictionaries of today (the DLP, Aurélio, Porto Editora), like Silva Bastos and Figueiredo before them, derive it instead within Portuguese from estranho with the verb suffix -ar, and Wiktionary gives both explanations.^{[5][6][7][8][9][1]} The adjective is from extrāneus (“external; foreign”), itself from extrā (“outside”) with the suffix -āneus.^[10][11][1]

The same verb is Spanish extrañar, Galician estrañar, Catalan estranyar and Old Occitan estranhar.^[1][12] The DLE derives the Spanish verb from the Latin one, and Du Cange records the Medieval Latin verb in the sense “to alienate” in a Navarrese charter.^[13][14] The REW lists the Portuguese verb among the derivatives of the Latin adjective with the sense “to reproach someone with something”.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is recorded from the 13th century.^[3][10] In the cantigas its usual sense is “to reproach, to censure”: Rui Queimado sings Ca senhor hei que m' estranharia “for I have a lady who would reproach me”, and Johan Garcia de Guilhade says he always censured other troubadours (sempr' estranhei).^[15][4] The cantigas also use it in the sense “to estrange, to turn someone away”.^[2] The glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda notes that in legal prose the censure could be a public act, such as a fine.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso glosses it in 1569 with the Latin alieno “to estrange”, and Barbosa in 1611 explains it as “not to know”.^[16][17] Bluteau translates it “to wonder at”, with examples from Cicero, and Folqman (1755) gives both “not to recognise” and “to take something badly”.^[18][19] Morais (1813) describes the feeling of being new to a place, custom or way of life and ill at ease with it.^[20]

The modern verb means to find something odd, to feel uneasy with what is unfamiliar, and to shy away from strangers, the way a child or an animal does.^[3][1] The old sense “to censure” survives, but the DLP marks it as little used.^[5] In Rio Grande do Sul the reflexive estranhar-se means to fall out with someone, sometimes to the point of a fight.^[21]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the sense “to reproach”.^[3][10][15]
• c. 1450 – the Livro das tres vertudes uses the verb.^[22]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses Estranhar with Latin alieno.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa explains it as “not to know”.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives the sense “to wonder at”.^[18]
• 1813 – Morais describes the sense “to feel new and ill at ease somewhere”.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To find something strange or unnatural; to be surprised at it: Estranhei que ninguém me telefonasse.^[3][1]
2. Not to adapt to something new; to feel uncomfortable with an unfamiliar place, food or custom.^[3][23]
3. To be shy or wary of a stranger, said especially of babies and animals.^[3][1]
4. (reflexive) To be hostile to each other; to quarrel.^[3][21]
5. To censure or reproach.^[3][5]

Word family

• estranhável

Related words

• estranho
• estranheza
• Latin extrāneus
• Spanish extrañar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. estranhar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estranhar
4. ^ 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. estranhar
5. ^ 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. estranhar
6. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. estranhar
7. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3998
8. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. estranhar
9. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. estranhar
10. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. estranho
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. extrāneus
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3098
13. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. extrañar
14. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. extraneare
15. ^ a b 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. estranhar
16. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estranhar
17. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estranhar
18. ^ 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. estranhar
19. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estranhar
20. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 781
21. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. estranhar
22. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. estranhar
23. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. estranhar