guiar

Forms

guiar (first-person singular present guio, first-person singular preterite guiei, past participle guiado)^[1] Cunha records the variant aguiar in the 14th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Medieval Latin *guidō (“to guide”), written Old Galician-Portuguese guiar in the oldest texts.^[3][2][1] The verb is as old as each of the western Romance languages: Spanish guiar, Catalan guiar, Occitan guidar, Old French guier (now French guider) and Italian guidare.^[4]

Its initial gu- points to a Germanic source, but no clear etymon is known.^[4] Corominas noted that in feudal law the verb meant to escort someone and guarantee his safety, and so proposed Gothic *𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌽 (*widan, “to join”), hence “to accompany, escort”.^[4][5] Houaiss, Cunha (“probably”), Nascentes (“perhaps”: who guides goes along), the DLP and Wiktionary (“possibly”) follow the Gothic etymology, and Aurélio calls the origin uncertain.^{[3][2][6][7][1][8]} Others derived the verb from Frankish *wītan (“to show a direction”), as the DHLF does for French and DELPo for Portuguese, through Old French; the glossary of the Crónica Geral holds that the Frankish word cannot explain the Iberian form.^[9][10][11] The glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda likewise derives it from the old Germanic verb that is now German weisen (“to show”).^[11] Vieira (1871) took the verb from French, and Figueiredo (1899) from Italian, perhaps from Gothic.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria praise a Virgen que nos guia “the Virgin who guides us”, tell how she guided pilgrims (guiou os romeus), as the star guides those who go by sea, and say that whoever is guided by her (quem se per vos guya) is free of folly.^[11] In a cantiga of Alfonso X a scout is wise because he led someone along that road (o guiou per aquela carreira).^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Geral often uses the reflexive for letting oneself be guided by someone's counsel, and the wish Deus vos guie “God guide you”.^[11] Barbosa (1611) records guiar a dança “to lead the dance”, and Bluteau (1712) leading a blind man by the hand and guiding a child's hand as it learns to write.^[14][15] Silva Bastos (1912) adds driving horses and a sense “to mend” used in Melgaço.^[16]

With the motor car the verb came to mean “to drive”: the DLP has it for driving and even for holding a driving licence.^[3][7] From the verb come guia, recorded in the 15th century, and guiador.^[17][18] Guião and guidão are later loans from French.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century, second half – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use guiar and guiar-se.^[11]
• 13th century – first record of guiador “guide”.^[18]
• 14th century – the variant aguiar.^[2]
• 15th century – first record of the noun guia.^[17]
• 1513 – the Livro dos Mártires uses the verb.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses guiar with Latin duco.^[20]
• 1611 – Barbosa records guiar a dança.^[14]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives guiding a blind man and a pupil's hand.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as showing someone the way.^[21]
• 1871 – Vieira derives the verb from French.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To guide; to lead or accompany someone, showing the way: Um pastor guiou-nos até à aldeia.^[3][8][1]
2. To protect, watch over: Deus te guie.^[3][8]
3. To advise, direct;^[3][22] (pronominal) to be guided by: guiar-se pela razão.^[3][22]
4. To drive horses.^[3][8]
5. To drive a vehicle.^[3][8][7][1]
6. To direct the course of a movement or a mechanism.^[3]
7. (intransitive) Of a road or path, to lead to a place.^[3][23]
8. (intransitive) To head for, make one's way.^[3][23]

Word family

• guia
• guiador

Related words

• guião
• guidão
• Spanish guiar
• French guider

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 Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. guiar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. guiar
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 258
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guiar
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. guiar
7. ^ a b c 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. guiar
8. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. guiar
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. guider
10. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. guiar
11. ^ a b c d e f 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. guiar
12. ^ a b 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, 943
13. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. guiar
14. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. guiar
15. ^ 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. guiar
16. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. guiar
17. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. guia
18. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. guiador
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. guiar
20. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. guiar
21. ^ 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, 675
22. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. guiar
23. ^ 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. guiar