familiarizar

Forms

familiarizar (first-person singular present familiarizo, first-person singular preterite familiarizei, past participle familiarizado)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese familiar + -izar.^[2][1][3][4] Vieira and Figueiredo in the 19th century already derive it from the adjective.^[5][6]

The adjective familiar, recorded from the 13th century, is from Latin familiāris (“of the family, of the household”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to the Monarquia Lusitana (1597–1693), in the participle familiarizado, and notes that this date is for an obsolete sense.^[2] That sense is “to become related, to contract kinship”, which Houaiss marks as obsolete and Priberam as little used.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1813) gives the sense “to make someone familiar in a house or in conversation”, “to accustom someone to something”, and the reflexive “to become familiar and intimate with someone”.^[9] Vieira adds the use with com “to make used to work”.^[5] Figueiredo (1899) has “to make common, popularize” and, for the reflexive, “to lose one's fear”.^[6] A letter of 1822 in the Post Scriptum corpus has the infinitive.^[10]

Timeline

• 1597–1693 – familiarizado in the Monarquia Lusitana, in the obsolete sense “related by kinship”.^[2]
• 1813 – Morais defines “to make familiar” and “to accustom”.^[9]
• 1822 – familiarizar in a private letter.^[10]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives the verb from familiar.^[5]
• 1899 – Figueiredo adds “to popularize” and “to lose one's fear”.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and pronominal, with com) To bring (someone) into the intimacy of others; to become close to: Em poucas semanas familiarizou-se com os vizinhos.^[2][11]
2. (figurative) To make or become used to something; to accustom, familiarize: familiarizar-se com um idioma.^[2][3][1]
3. (figurative) To make or become free of fear of something.^[2][6]
4. (figurative) To make widely known or common; to popularize (vulgarizar).^[2][4]
5. (pronominal, obsolete) To become related by kinship.^[2][8]

Related words

• familiar
• familiaridade
• família
• Latin familiāris

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. familiarizar
3. ^ 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. familiarizar
4. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. familiarizar
5. ^ a b c 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, 587
6. ^ a b c d Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 598
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. familiar
8. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. familiarizar
9. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 9
10. ^ a b 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. familiarizar
11. ^ 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. familiarizar