fumar

Forms

fumar (first-person singular present fumo, first-person singular preterite fumei, past participle fumado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fūmō (“to give off smoke or steam”).^[2][3][4][1] Aurélio allows that it may have come through French fumer.^[5]

The same Latin verb is Galician fumar, Spanish fumar beside the inherited Spanish humar, Catalan fumar, Occitan fumar, Italian fumare and Romanian fuma.^[6][7][1]

The Latin verb is formed on fūmus (“smoke”), the source of Portuguese fumo.^[8][9][1] That noun goes back to *fūmos, from *dʰuh₂mós (“smoke”), and is cognate with Sanskrit धूम (dhūmá, “smoke”), Ancient Greek θυμός (thūmós, “spirit”), Old Church Slavonic дꙑмъ (dymŭ, “smoke”) and Lithuanian dūmai (“smoke”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's earliest date, before the 15th century, belongs to the noun fumada; the infinitive fumar is first recorded in 1589.^[2] Cunha dates the verb to the 16th century.^[3] The first dictionaries define it as fumegar “to give off smoke”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

For Bluteau and Feijó the verb meant “to smoke, give off smoke”, as burning wood does.^[10][11] Morais in 1789 adds figurative uses: to breathe out blasphemies, to be very angry, and, used transitively, to make something vanish like smoke, such as a fortune.^[12] The sense “to draw in and breathe out tobacco smoke” appears about 1836.^[2] Vieira in 1871–1874 has it with cigars and cigarettes, beside the sense “to cure in smoke”, used of pork.^[13] In Portugal it can also mean “to run away”, and in metalwork “to gild silver”.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1400s – the noun fumada, the first member of the family that Houaiss dates.^[2]
• 1589 – first record of the infinitive fumar.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau: fumar is fumegar, to give off smoke.^[10]
• 1734 – Feijó lists fumar and fumegar together.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais records the figurative senses “to rage” and “to squander”.^[12]
• c. 1836 – the sense “to smoke tobacco” appears.^[2]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira lists smoking cigars and cigarettes, and curing pork in smoke.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To smoke, to draw in and breathe out the smoke of tobacco or another substance, transitive or intransitive: Ele deixou de fumar há dez anos.^[2][5][1]
2. To smoke, to cure food in smoke: fumar chouriços.^[2][14][1]
3. To give off smoke; to give off vapour or steam.^[2][15]
4. (pronominal) To evaporate, to vanish like smoke.^[2][16]
5. (figurative) To fume, to become angry.^[2][17]
6. To squander, to waste away (a fortune).^[5][12]
7. (Portugal) To run away.^[2]
8. To gild silver.^[2][17]

Word family

• fumador
• fumante
• fumada

Related words

• fumo
• fumaça
• fumegar
• defumar
• Latin fūmus
• Spanish fumar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fumar
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fumar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fumar
5. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fumar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3566
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. fumare
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. fūmō
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fumar
11. ^ a b c Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fumar
12. ^ a b c 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, 642
13. ^ a b 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, 792
14. ^ 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. fumar
15. ^ 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. fumar
16. ^ 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. fumar
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. fumar