girar

Forms

girar (first-person singular present giro, first-person singular preterite girei, past participle girado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin gȳrō (“to make go round; to turn in a circle”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] Meyer-Lübke sees it as a Catalan word taken into Spanish and Portuguese.^[5] Silva Bastos and Figueiredo derive it from the noun giro.^[6][7] The Latin verb is formed on gȳrus (“circle, ring”), which is from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “circle”).^[1][8][3]

The same Latin verb is Catalan girar, Spanish girar, Italian girare and Galician xirar.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 15th century, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, without a quotation.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) glosses it “to turn round” and quotes it of the heavenly spheres and of travel along a coast.^[10] Morais (1789) has both the transitive “to make something move round a centre” and the intransitive senses.^[11] The old Caldas Aulete adds “to circulate” and “to make a living”, and Figueiredo (1899) “to trade”.^[12][7] In Brazil the verb also means “to go mad”, and in Portugal gira daqui! is “go away!”.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1400s – first record.^[2][3]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau glosses it “to turn round”.^[10]
• 1734 – Feijó explains it as andar de roda.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais gives transitive and intransitive senses.^[11]
• 1836 – first record of girante.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To turn or rotate around an axis or centre; to spin something: A roda girava devagar.^[2][13][1]
2. To describe a circular movement.^[2][13]
3. To go from place to place; to wander.^[2][13]
4. To be spread about; to circulate, of news or of money.^[2][12]
5. (with em torno de or sobre) To be centred on a subject.^[12][16]
6. (Brazil) To go mad.^[13][17]

Word family

• girante
• regirar

Related words

• giro
• girândola
• girassol

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. girar
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. giro
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. girar
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. girar
7. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. girar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. gyrare
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. girar
11. ^ a b 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, 60
12. ^ 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. girar
13. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. girar
14. ^ 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. girar
15. ^ 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. girar
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4699
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. girar