fingir

Forms

fingir (first-person singular present finjo, first-person singular preterite fingi, past participle fingido)^[1] Houaiss records fingir and finger in the 14th century, and Cunha fynger in the 15th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fingō (“to shape, mould”), and in Portuguese it goes back to the 14th century, written Old Galician-Portuguese fingir and Old Galician-Portuguese finger.^[2][3][4][1] Houaiss traces the sense of the Latin verb from modelling in clay to shaping any soft material, then to giving a form to something, and finally to representing, imagining, feigning and inventing.^[2]

The same Latin verb is Italian fingere and French feindre, and in Spanish and Catalan it survives as words of the bakery: Spanish heñir “to knead” and Catalan fènyer.^[5] García de Diego considers the Spanish fingir a learned word beside the popular verb.^[6]

The Latin verb is from Proto-Italic *fingō, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to mould”), the root of Ancient Greek τεῖχος (teîkhos, “wall”) and of the English word dough.^[1][7] De Vaan notes that the ⟨g⟩ of figulus (“potter”) and figūra (“form”) points to the same root.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 14th century from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The older Portuguese dictionaries gloss it with Latin words for inventing and for pretending: Cardoso (1569) gives fingo and comminiscor, and Pereira (1697) fingo and simulo.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) separates two senses, to invent or imagine (of the stories the poets made up) and to deceive by appearances.^[11] Folqman (1755) and Morais (1813) keep the same two senses, and Morais adds the reflexive fingir-se, to give oneself a false air, as in fingir-se cego.^[12][13] Modern dictionaries add simulating a feeling, saying something without sincerity, and faking a document.^[2][14]

In Trás-os-Montes and Beira the verb also means to work the bread dough again by hand after it has risen, a sense recorded by Figueiredo (1899) and the regional surveys of the TLPGP, where it is also to divide the dough into loaves.^[15][16][17] Priberam compares the dialect verb fengir “to knead the dough”.^[18] Fernando Pessoa's lines on the poet who pretends so completely that he feigns even the pain he really feels are quoted by Aurélio under the sense “to simulate”.^[19]

Timeline

• 1300s – first records, as fingir and finger.^[2]
• 1400s – Cunha records the spelling fynger.^[3]
• 1567 – a private letter has fimgir.^[20]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders it with Latin fingo and comminiscor.^[9]
• 1572 – first record of the participle fingido.^[3]
• 1600s – first record of fingidor “one who pretends”.^[3]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau separates “to invent” from “to deceive by appearances”.^[11]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the Trás-os-Montes sense “to work the risen dough again”.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To hide one's feelings or intentions; to dissemble.^[2][21]
2. To make something false seem real; to pretend, feign: Fingiu que não me via.^[2][1]
3. (reflexive) To pass oneself off as something one is not: fingir-se de morto.^[2][14]
4. To say or write something without sincerity.^[2][19]
5. To invent or imagine; to suppose, make believe: Vamos fingir que somos piratas.^[2][22]
6. To counterfeit or fake, as a signature or document.^[14][22]
7. (Portugal, Trás-os-Montes, Beira) To work the risen bread dough again by hand; to divide it into loaves.^[16][17]

Word family

• fingido
• fingidor
• fingimento

Related words

• ficção
• fictício
• figura
• Latin fingō
• Spanish fingir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fingir
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fingir
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fingir
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. fingere
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fingir
10. ^ 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. fingir
11. ^ 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. fingir
12. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fingir
13. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 35
14. ^ a b c 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. fingir
15. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. fingir
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. fingir
17. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. fingir
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. fengir
19. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fingir
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. fingir
21. ^ 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. fingir
22. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4313