furar

Forms

furar (first-person singular present furo, first-person singular preterite furei, past participle furado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin forō (“to bore, pierce”), written Old Galician-Portuguese furar in the oldest texts.^[2][1][3] The ⟨u⟩ is unexplained.^[2] Machado, cited by Houaiss, supposes an older ⟨*forar⟩ whose weak unstressed ⟨o⟩ was pronounced /u/, as in botar, and Nascentes suggests that metaphony closed the vowel.^[2][3] The DDGM objects that this is the only form from the first Romance texts, so the change is older than writing, and lists other views: García de Diego cites a Latin form with ⟨u⟩ in the Peregrinatio of Egeria, Schuchardt thought of a blend with furgar, and Piel of a link with Latin fūr (“thief”).^[4][5]

The same Latin verb is Galician furar, Asturian furar, Italian forare and Occitan forar, and French forer was borrowed from it.^[6][5][7] Spanish has horadar from the Late Latin noun forātus (“perforation”).^[8] The medieval Old Galician-Portuguese furaco and modern buraco are derived from the verb, the ⟨b-⟩ of the latter being unexplained.^[6]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *foraje/o- and an iterative Proto-Indo-European *bʰorH-ie/o- (“to pierce many times”), with cognates Lithuanian bárti (“to scold”), Old Church Slavonic брати (brati, “to fight”), Old Norse berja (“to beat”) and Old High German berjan (“to hit”).^[9] Wiktionary gives the root *bʰerH- and compares the English word bore.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology gives as first record the Cantigas de Santa Maria (308), as pedras fez furar “he had the stones bored through”, and cantiga 38 has a pedra que me furados / os queixos ouv’ “the stone that pierced my jaws”.^[4] Houaiss also dates the verb to the 13th century; the Miragres de Santiago have achou y hũu muro […] et mãdoo furar “he found a wall there and had it bored through”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as opening something with the point of an iron, and records the figure furar o Oceano “to cross the ocean from end to end”.^[10] Morais (1813) adds “to see into something with the mind” and the university phrase furar a noite “to skip the evening study hours”.^[11][12] The old Aulete records furar paredes “to be sharp-witted” and the Brazilian journalists' sense “to publish a story first”.^[13]

Most of the later figurative senses come from Brazil: furar a fila “to jump the queue”, “to stand someone up”, “(of a plan) to fall through”, the football sense “to miss the ball”, and furar a greve “to break a strike”, also used in Portugal.^[2][1][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – as pedras fez furar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][2]
• c. 1390–1437 – furar in the Horto do Esposo.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it as Latin terebro and pertundo.^[16]
• 1596 – the participle forada, with o, in a private letter.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records furar o Oceano.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais records furar a noite.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To pierce, bore, make a hole in; to drill: furar uma tábua com o berbequim.^[2][18][1]
2. (intransitive) To get a hole, to puncture: Furou-se-me o pneu na estrada.^[13]
3. (transitive) To go through, penetrate, make one's way through: O sol furava as nuvens.^[2][19]
4. (intransitive) To burst out, break through; to push one's way through a crowd.^[2][18]
5. (intransitive) To overcome difficulties by persistence.^[2][20]
6. (transitive, intransitive) To make fail, frustrate; to fall through: O jantar de sábado furou.^[2][19]
7. (intransitive, Brazil, informal) To fail to keep an appointment, to stand someone up.^[2][1]
8. (transitive, Brazil) To jump ahead of others: furar a fila.^[2][20]
9. (transitive) To break a strike by working: furar a greve.^[14][1]
10. (football) To miss the ball when kicking or receiving it.^[2][20]
11. (transitive, Brazil, journalism) To scoop other papers by publishing news first.^[2][13]
12. (Brazil, taboo) To deflower.^[2][18]

Word family

• furo
• furador

Related words

• furado
• buraco
• Latin forō
• Galician furar
• Spanish horadar

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 o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. furar
3. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. furar
4. ^ 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. furar
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. forare
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. forer
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 389
9. ^ 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 Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. furar
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 69
12. ^ 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, 805
13. ^ a b c 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. furar
14. ^ 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. furar
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. furar
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. furar
17. ^ 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. furar
18. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. furar
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4535
20. ^ 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. furar