ganhar

Forms

ganhar (first-person singular present ganho, first-person singular preterite ganhei, past participle ganhado, short past participle ganho)^[1]

Etymology

The medieval forms are Old Galician-Portuguese gãar, Old Galician-Portuguese gaanar, Old Galician-Portuguese guaannar, Old Galician-Portuguese guaanhar and Old Galician-Portuguese gaanhar, all of the 13th century.^[2] Houaiss first finds the modern spelling in the 14th.^[3] The origin is disputed.^[3]

In Cunha's view, which Houaiss follows, the verb is borrowed from Frankish *waidanjan (“to gather the harvest”), related to Old High German weida (“hunting or fishing; pasture”) and German Weide (“pasture”), with a possible crossing in sense with Gothic *ganan (“to covet”).^[3][2] Cunha finds that the Gothic verb explains the old variants better.^[2] Nascentes, Aurélio and Corominas put the Gothic verb first, crossed with the Germanic one through the old form.^[4][5][3] For Corominas the Gothic verb, a sister of Old Norse gana (“to gape; to desire greedily”), is the source of Spanish ganar and of the old Portuguese form, while the verb from the Frankish word, Italian guadagnare, French gagner, Occitan gazanhar and Catalan guanyar, changed its meaning; the modern verb resulted from the crossing of the two.^[6][7] Machado, according to Houaiss, derives it from Frankish through a Latinised form, which would explain the old forms with ⟨nh⟩ and ⟨gu⟩, but several authors reject that path for the other languages.^[3]

The glossary of the ⟨Cancioneiro da Ajuda⟩ calls the form with ⟨gu⟩ the most archaic outcome of the Germanic verb, matching the Italian one.^[8] Nascentes's fuller dictionary, which also starts from the Germanic verb, traces the sense from “to pasture” through “to run a farm, gather its profits” to “to acquire”.^[9] The French verb is from the same Frankish word, at first probably “to get food, to graze cattle”.^[10] The verb is also Galician gañar.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Portuguese Latin document of 874 already has ganare hereditates “to acquire estates”.^[6] In the cantigas the word means “to gain, obtain”: onde gãar podesse ren / senon gran coita “from whom I could gain nothing but great sorrow”, and King Denis mocks a man ca perdeu quant' avia guaanhado “for he lost all he had won”.^[11][8] Afons' Eanes do Coton has per i podedes gaar, / mia senhor, o reino de Deus “by that you can gain, my lady, the kingdom of God”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The first dictionaries render it with Latin lucror “to make a profit”.^[13][14] Folqman in 1755 lists earning one's living, winning at play, winning a lawsuit and earning a soldier's pay.^[15] Bluteau thought it came from Italian guadagnare, French gagner or Spanish ganado “cattle”, the old source of gain.^[16] Vieira called the origin doubtful.^[17]

The modern verb covers earning, receiving a gift, winning a game, a battle or a lawsuit, and winning someone over; sleep or fear can ganhar a person.^[3] The Kadiwéu language of Brazil borrowed it as nigaanye.^[1]

Timeline

• 874 – ganare in a Portuguese Latin document.^[6]
• 13th century – the cantigas have gãar, gaar, gaanhar and guaanhar.^[2][11]
• 14th century – first record of the spelling ganhar.^[3]
• 1438 – the Vida de Santa Eufrosina (copied 1431–1446) uses the verb.^[18]
• 1503 – the participle ganhada in a private letter of that year or earlier.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses it with Latin lucror.^[13]
• 1755 – Folqman lists ganhar a vida and ganhar a demanda.^[15]
• 1813 – Morais records a regional sense of Beira.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To earn, to make (money) by work or business.^[3][21]
2. To receive as a gift: ganhou uma bicicleta da avó.^[3][22]
3. To obtain by merit or effort.^[3]
4. To win at gambling or by luck: ganhar na lotaria.^[3]
5. To take hold of, overcome: o sono ganhou-o.^[3]
6. To win (a battle, a lawsuit, a game or a competition); to be the winner.^[3][23]
7. To gain little by little: ganhar tempo, ganhar terreno.^[3][23]
8. To achieve (fame, a position); to win over, attract: ganhar a confiança de alguém.^[3]
9. To reach (a place).^[21]

Word family

• ganho
• ganhador

Related words

• Galician gañar
• Spanish ganar
• French gagner

Usage notes

Morais records a regional verb ganhar of Beira, “to separate the stalk from the grapes”.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ganhar
3. ^ 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. ganhar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ganhar
5. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ganhar
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 65
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ganar
8. ^ 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. guaanhar
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 235
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. gagner
11. ^ 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. guaanhar
12. ^ 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. gaar
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ganhar
14. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ganhar
15. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ganhar
16. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ganhar
17. ^ 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, 831
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ganhar
19. ^ 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. ganhar
20. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 736
21. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ganhar
22. ^ 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. ganhar
23. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4601