ferir

Forms

ferir (first-person singular present firo, third-person singular present fere, first-person singular preterite feri, past participle ferido)^[1] The cantigas have the future ferra, ferran and the present subjunctive feira, feiran.^[2] The present firo beside feres, fere is the vowel alternation of the radical-changing verbs.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin feriō (“to strike”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ferir in the oldest texts.^[4][5][1][6] The Latin verb was defective, without a perfect or a past participle, and also meant “to strike (a coin)”.^[4][7]

The same Latin verb is Galician ferir, Spanish herir, Catalan ferir, Occitan ferir, French férir, Italian ferire and Romanian feri.^[8][1][9] The old form Old Spanish ferir, recorded in documents of 1090 and 1129, kept the Latin sense “to strike”, and Spanish only later narrowed it to “to wound”.^[10][11]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *ferjō, and de Vaan and Wiktionary derive it from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to pierce, to strike”), whose o-grade is in forō (“to bore”).^[7][1] De Vaan notes that this etymology rests on the assumption that the Latin verb shares its root with the verb for boring.^[7] Wiktionary also gives an alternative root, *bʰer- (“to scrape, to cut”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, between 1044 and 1065, is a Latin charter.^[4] Cunha dates the Portuguese verb to the 13th century.^[5] In the Galician-Portuguese lyric it means to strike so as to wound, to beat as a punishment, to shoot in hunting and to attack.^[12][2] In a cantiga d'amigo of Lopo a girl says e fui por el mal ferida “and I was badly beaten because of him”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana uses the verb for spurring a horse and for charging the enemy: foy ferir moy ardidament ẽnos troyãos “he went to charge the Trojans very boldly”.^[12] In old descriptions of boundaries a property vai ferir with a road or a stream, that is, borders on it.^[14] Bluteau defines it as breaking the continuity of a living body, and the sense “to wound” became the main one.^[15][4]

From the sense “to strike” come ferir as cordas “to pluck the strings”, ferir lume “to strike sparks” and ferir batalha “to join battle”.^[4][16][17] Figurative senses are to hurt someone's feelings, to strike the senses unpleasantly and to go against someone's rights.^[4][18]

Timeline

• 1044–1065 – a Latin charter.^[4]
• 13th century – ferir in the Galician-Portuguese lyric;^[5][12] ferida and ferido are also of this century.^[5][12]
• c. 1430 – ferir in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[19]
• 1544 – a private letter writes fyrydo.^[20]
• 16th century – first records of ferimento and desferir.^[5]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates ferir as ferio and percutio.^[21]
• 1798–1799 – Viterbo explains ferir “to border on” in old boundary descriptions.^[14]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira quotes matar, ferir, ou roubar from the Ordenações Afonsinas.^[22]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wound, to injure: O estilhaço feriu dois soldados.^[4][17][1]
2. To strike, to hit: O ferreiro feria o ferro na bigorna..^[4][17]
3. To engage in (a battle or a fight).^[4][17]
4. To pluck or strike (the strings of an instrument).^[4][17][23]
5. To strike the senses, often unpleasantly: Aquele cheiro feria o nariz.^[4][17]
6. To hurt (someone's feelings), to offend: As palavras dele feriram-na.^[4][18]
7. To go against, to violate (rights, principles or interests).^[4][18]
8. To cut through, to furrow (water or soil).^[4][18]
9. To strike (sparks or fire) by friction.^[4][24]
10. (pronominal) To hurt oneself: Feri-me na mão.^[4][18]

Word family

• ferida
• ferido
• ferimento
• desferir

Related words

• Latin feriō
• Galician ferir
• Spanish herir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ferir
3. ^ Williams, Edwin B. (1938), From Latin to Portuguese: Historical Phonology and Morphology of the Portuguese Language, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 176
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ferir
5. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ferir
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ferir
7. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke)
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 346
11. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
12. ^ a b c d 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. ferir
13. ^ 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. ferir
14. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 444
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
16. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão
17. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ferir
18. ^ a b c d e 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. ferir
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ferir
20. ^ 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. ferir
21. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
22. ^ 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, 638
23. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ferir
24. ^ 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. ferir