fazer

Forms

fazer (first-person singular present faço, first-person singular preterite fiz, past participle feito)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin faciō (“to make, do”), written Old Galician-Portuguese fazer in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Houaiss's earliest date, 991, is the form faceron in a Latin charter.^[2] Corominas explains the short infinitives of Old Spanish by a colloquial Late Latin *fare, which also left its trace in the Ibero-Romance future and conditional, Portuguese farei among them.^[5]

The same Latin verb is Galician facer, Spanish hacer, Catalan fer, French faire, Italian fare and Romanian face.^[6][1]

Within Latin, the verb continues an Italic root *fak-, with *fēk- in the perfect.^[7] Wiktionary takes it from *fakjō, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place”).^[1] De Vaan thinks the root-final ⟨k⟩ probably arose in the root aorist of that root, matching the ⟨-κ-⟩ of the Greek aorist, and that Italic then spread the stem through the whole verb.^[7] The Oxford Latin Dictionary compares Ancient Greek τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates the vernacular verb to the 13th century, in the senses “to carry out, to make, to manufacture”.^[3] The glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda gives it the senses “to carry out, to create, to execute”, with the present forms faço, faz and fazen.^[9] The oldest prose text in the CTA corpus that has it is the Trasladação de S. Nicolau, in a 14th-century witness.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The troubadours already used the verb for doing in general, for making something material, for creating and for causing an effect, and also with a predicate, “to name, to proclaim” and “to turn into”.^[11] Nunes's glossary of the cantigas d'amor adds “to happen” and “to cause”.^[9]

Bluteau defined it in 1712 as producing any natural, artificial or moral effect, and Barbosa had already recorded the phrase fazer bem “to do good”.^[12][13] Figueiredo's dictionary of 1899 also lists the senses “to pronounce, to say” and, with que, “to cause”.^[14] The REW notes that Portuguese, like Romanian, Italian, French and Provençal, uses the verb as an expressive word for “to say” in parenthetical clauses.^[6] In Rio Grande do Sul it also means “to agree on, to contract”.^[15]

Wiktionary records the Macanese descendant fazê.^[1]

Timeline

• 991 – the form faceron in a Latin charter.^[2]
• 13th century – first vernacular records, in Cunha's dating.^[3]
• 14th century – the Trasladação de S. Nicolau, the oldest CTA text that uses the verb.^[10]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Fazer with Latin facio.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists fazer bem.^[13]
• 1712 – Bluteau's definition: to produce a natural, artificial or moral effect.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais enters the verb as active, for physical, artificial or moral action.^[17]
• 1871–1871–1874 – Vieira derives it from Latin facere.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make or do; to produce or carry out by some action.^[2][1]
2. To build, manufacture or put together from parts and materials: Fizeram uma ponte nova.^[2][19]
3. To prepare (food or drink): fazer o jantar.^[2][1]
4. To bring into being, create; to beget.^[2][19]
5. To carry out something abstract: to establish (a law, an agreement), or to write or compose (a poem, a song).^[2]
6. To amount to, to make up (a total or a distance).^[2]
7. (with de) To serve as, to act as; to play the part of.^[2][1]
8. To make (someone or something) be a certain way; to render: A notícia fê-la feliz.^[2]
9. (auxiliary, with an infinitive) To cause (someone) to do something.^[1]
10. (with por) To sell at, to let have for (a price), often a lower one.^[2][1]
11. To turn (an age), to have a birthday: O meu tio faz cinquenta anos em junho.^[2][1]
12. (impersonal) Of time, to have passed: já faz um mês que partiu^[2][1]
13. (impersonal) Of the weather, to be: faz frio, faz calor.^[1]
14. (grammar) To have (a certain inflection), to form (a plural).^[2]

Word family

• afazer
• desfazer
• desfeita
• desfeitear
• desfeito
• fazedor
• refazer
• perfazer
• feito

Related words

• fazenda
• Latin faciō
• Galician facer
• Spanish hacer

Usage notes

Wiktionary lists many fixed phrases, such as fazer a barba “to shave”, fazer castelos no ar “to build castles in the air” and fazer das tripas coração “to make a great effort, to summon up courage”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. fazer
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fazer
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fazer
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 297
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3128
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b 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. fazer
10. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. fazer
11. ^ 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. fazer
12. ^ 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. fazer
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fazer
14. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. fazer
15. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. fazer
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fazer
17. ^ 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, 602
18. ^ 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, 604
19. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fazer