gemer

Forms

gemer (first-person singular present gemo, first-person singular preterite gemi, past participle gemido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gemō (“to groan, moan”), with the same form Old Galician-Portuguese gemer in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Cunha derives it from a Vulgar Latin infinitive of the second conjugation, which replaced the classical third-conjugation one.^[3]

The same Latin verb is Galician gemer, Spanish gemir, Catalan gemir, French geindre, Italian gemere and Romanian geme.^[4][5] García de Diego considers the Spanish form a learned word.^[5]

The verb's origin is unclear.^[6] It has traditionally been connected with Ancient Greek γέμω (gémō, “to be full”), from a root Proto-Indo-European *gem- (“to grasp”), but de Vaan finds the change of meaning hard to imagine.^[6][1] He prefers Vine's proposal: a root *genH- (“to call”), seen in γέγωνα (gégōna, “to shout”), whose /n/ became /m/ in Latin on the model of fremō (“to roar”) and tremō (“to tremble”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria often pair the verb with weeping: gemendo e chorando, chorando e gemendo, and of a dying woman cona morte gemendo “moaning in the throes of death”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The medieval sense, to moan from pain or grief, is still the main one.^[7][2] Morais records poetic uses of the sea breaking softly on the shore (from Camões), of a boat or a bookshelf heavily laden, and of the turtle-dove's call.^[8] Today the dictionaries also list “to creak” (of a door or a cart), “to bend” and “to coo”, Priberam records “to sing to the guitar” as Brazilian popular usage, and Priberam and Porto give “to twist the vine shoot” in viticulture.^[9][10][11] In Beira the verb means “to ooze, seep”.^[10]

Timeline

• 13th century – gemendo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[7][2]
• 14th century – first record of the noun gemido “groan”.^[3][12]
• c. 1430 – gemer in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses the word with Latin gemo.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais records the poetic senses of the sea and the laden boat.^[15]
• 1873 – first record of gemebundo “moaning”, according to Cunha.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To moan or groan, to express pain or grief with inarticulate sounds: O ferido gemeu toda a madrugada.^[2][9][1]
2. (transitive and intransitive) To lament, to utter complaints; to say something with a moan.^[2][16]
3. To suffer, to be tormented by something.^[2][9]
4. To make a sad, monotonous sound; to creak, of a door, a cart or wood under strain.^[9][16]
5. Of the dove or the turtle-dove, to coo.^[9][11]
6. To bend under a weight.^[9]
7. (viticulture) To twist or bend the vine shoot when tying it.^[11][17]
8. (Portugal, Beira) To ooze, seep (ressumar).^[10]

Word family

• gemido

Related words

• gemebundo
• Latin gemō
• Spanish gemir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. gemer
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. gemer
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3733
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c 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. gemer
8. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 83
9. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. gemer
10. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. gemer
11. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4649
12. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. gemido
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. gemer
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gemer
15. ^ 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, 656
16. ^ a b 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. gemer
17. ^ 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. gemer