jejuar

Forms

jejuar (first-person singular present jejuo, first-person singular preterite jejuei, past participle jejuado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had jajũar and jejũar;^[2][3][4] Houaiss records jajuava and jujuar in the 13th century, geiuar and jejunhar in the 14th and geguar in the 15th.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin ieiūnō (“to fast”), written Old Galician-Portuguese jajũar and Old Galician-Portuguese jejũar in the oldest texts.^[3][2][1] The Latin verb is formed from the adjective ieiūnus (“fasting, hungry”).^[1][5] Cunha and Lorenzo trace the common medieval forms with /a/ in the first syllable to Vulgar Latin *iaiūnō.^[2][4]

The same Latin verb is Spanish ayunar, French jeûner, Italian digiunare and Romanian ajuna.^[6] Corominas dates the Spanish verb to 1241.^[7]

De Vaan explains the adjective from Proto-Italic *jagjūno-, from Proto-Indo-European *Hyeh₂ǵ-yu-, a derivative of a root meaning “to sacrifice”.^[5][1] The oldest Latin spelling was iaiūnus, whose vowels were later assimilated.^[5][1] The OLD calls the adjective of unknown origin.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use the verb several times: one has e jajũava “and fasted”, another jajũava as vigias das sas festas “fasted on the vigils of her feasts”.^[4] The Galician translation of the Crónica Geral also has iaiũassem “that they should fast”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval texts the verb is above all religious, fasting on vigils and in Lent.^[4] Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as abstaining from food for a certain time, and Folqman's dictionary of 1755 gives the Latin jejunare of the Church writers.^[9][10] Two figurative senses grew from it: going without something pleasant, and being ignorant of a subject, “fasting” in it.^[3][11] Silva Bastos (1912) already records the second as familiar.^[12]

Timeline

• 13th century – jajũar and jejũar in Galician-Portuguese texts, among them the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][4]
• 14th century – geiuar and jejunhar.^[3]
• 15th century – geguar.^[3]
• 1556 – the form gaguey “I fasted” in a private letter.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines the verb.^[9]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the familiar sense “not to know something”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To fast: to go without food by choice or because one is made to.^[3][11][1]
2. (intransitive) To abstain from food as a religious precept or out of mortification: Jejuou toda a Quaresma.^[3][14]
3. (figurative) To go without something, especially something enjoyable.^[3][15][1]
4. (figurative) To know nothing of a subject: jejuar em química.^[3][16][15]

Word family

• jejuador

Related words

• jejum
• jejuno
• desjejum
• Latin ieiūnus
• Spanish ayunar

Usage notes

Jejuar a pão e água means to eat nothing but bread and water.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. jejum
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. jejuar
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. iaiũar
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4581
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ayuno
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. iēiūnus
9. ^ 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. jejuar
10. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. jejuar
11. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. jejuar
12. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. jejuar
13. ^ 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. jejuar
14. ^ 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. jejuar
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. jejuar
16. ^ 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. jejuar