gravar

gravar¹ to burden, encumber

Etymology tree of gravar¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin gravis

Italian grave

Portuguese grave

Spanish grave

French grave

Romanian grav

Latin gravō

Italian gravare

Portuguese gravar

From the same root · gravar¹

Latin gravēdō ← gravis

Latin gravēscō ← gravis

Latin gravidus ← gravis

Latin gravitās ← gravis

Latin graviter ← gravis

Latin gravitō ← gravis

Latin praegravis ← gravis

Spanish gravoso ← grave

Latin aggravō ← gravō

Latin dēgravō ← gravō

Latin praegravō ← gravō

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ɡɾaˈva(ʁ)/, [ɡɾaˈva(h)]^[1]
• São-Paulo: /ɡɾaˈva(ɾ)/^[1]
• Rio-de-Janeiro: /ɡɾaˈva(ʁ)/, [ɡɾaˈva(χ)]^[1]
• Caipira: /ɡɾaˈva(ɻ)/^[1]

Forms

gravar (first-person singular present gravo, first-person singular preterite gravei, past participle gravado)^[1]

Etymology

The verb for “to burden, encumber” is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin gravō (“to weigh down, burden, aggravate”), according to Houaiss, Nascentes and Wiktionary.^[2][3][1] Houaiss dates it to the 14th century.^[2] The Latin verb is formed from gravis (“heavy”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us through Proto-Italic *gʷraus, and is cognate with Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús) and Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌿𐍃 (kaurus, “heavy”).^[1][4]

Spanish gravar has the same Latin source and sense, with a derivative desgravar for lowering taxes.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb meant “to make heavy, load, weigh down”.^[4][7] In Portuguese it means to oppress or harm, to burden with taxes, and, in law, to encumber property with a charge such as a mortgage or a servitude.^[2][8] Figueiredo (1899) lists it separately from the verb for engraving, as gravar² “to molest, burden, vex”.^[9]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records of the verb for “to burden”.^[2]
• 1899 – Figueiredo enters it as a separate verb from Latin gravare.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To oppress, harm or weigh on: to make something a burden for someone.^[2][8][10]
2. To burden with taxes or duties: O governo gravou as importações com uma nova taxa.^[2][11]
3. (law) To encumber property with a charge such as a mortgage or a servitude (servidão).^[2][8]

gravar² to engrave; to record

Etymology tree of gravar²

inherited borrowed derived

French graver

Portuguese gravar

From the same root · gravar²

French engraver ← graver

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ɡɾaˈva(ʁ)/, [ɡɾaˈva(h)]^[1]
• São-Paulo: /ɡɾaˈva(ɾ)/^[1]
• Rio-de-Janeiro: /ɡɾaˈva(ʁ)/, [ɡɾaˈva(χ)]^[1]
• Caipira: /ɡɾaˈva(ɻ)/^[1]

Forms

gravar (first-person singular present gravo, first-person singular preterite gravei, past participle gravado)^[1]

Etymology

The verb for “to engrave” is borrowed from French graver (“to engrave”), according to Houaiss, Cunha, Aurélio and Wiktionary.^{[2][12][8][1]} Cunha and Houaiss date it to the 15th century, when it was spelt Old Galician-Portuguese grauar.^{[2][12][8][1]} Houaiss follows the French verb from about 1200, when it meant to make a parting in the hair, to 1475, when it first meant to cut lines into a hard surface.^[2][13]

The French verb is from Frankish *graban (“to dig”).^[12][8][13] The Frankish word continues Proto-Germanic *grabaną (“to dig”), the source of Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (graban), Old English grafan, Old High German graban and German graben.^[14][15] Nascentes, citing the REW, thought the French verb might be the intermediary, and noted that Cortesão derived the Portuguese word from Spanish.^[16] Spanish grabar is itself a French loan, first recorded in 1588, a century after the Portuguese verb.^[17][2]

Older dictionaries gave other origins: Vieira derived the verb from Latin gravō, and Figueiredo from German, comparing Ancient Greek γράφω (gráphō, “to write”).^[18][9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) and Feijó (1734) define the verb as cutting with a burin (buril), and Bluteau gives the example of engraving in bronze.^[19][20] The French verb had already acquired the figurative sense of fixing something in someone's heart in the 16th century, and Portuguese uses it for impressing something on the memory and making it lasting.^[2][11]

With the phonograph and magnetic tape the verb came to mean recording sounds and images, and in Brazil it also means saving data to a storage medium.^[2][21][1] Its derivatives followed: gravação is first recorded in the 17th century, gravador and gravura in the 18th.^[12]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records, spelt grauar.^[2][12]
• 1588 – Spanish grabar first recorded.^[17]
• 1684 – gravada in a private letter.^[22]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as cutting with a burin.^[19]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira lists engraving on precious stones, copper plates and wood.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. To engrave: to cut figures or letters into a hard material such as metal, wood, stone or glass with a chisel (cinzel) or burin, or to etch them chemically.^[2][8][1]
2. To mark with a seal or branding iron (ferrete).^[2][9]
3. (figurative) To memorise, to commit to memory.^[2][1]
4. (figurative) To fix or make lasting;^[2][10] (reflexive) to become imprinted: Aquele dia gravou-se na sua memória.^[2][10]
5. To record sound or images on a disc, tape or other medium.^[2][1]
6. (Brazil, computing) To save data to a storage medium.^[2][1]

Word family

• gravação
• gravador
• gravadora
• gravura
• regravar