julgar

Forms

julgar (first-person singular present julgo, first-person singular preterite julguei, past participle julgado)^[1] Medieval texts write juigar (1273 juigarom), julgar, iulgal, joyga and judgar (13th century), and jugualva and juguey (15th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin iūdicō (“to judge, pass sentence”), a verb formed from iūdex (“judge”).^[2][3][4][1] The oldest record, of 1273, is Old Galician-Portuguese juigarom “they judged”, and the 13th century also has Old Galician-Portuguese judgar and Old Galician-Portuguese julgar.^[2][3]

The /l/ of the first syllable is hard to explain, as Houaiss and Cunha say.^[2][3] Nascentes lists the view that the Latin dental became a fricative and then a lateral, in Leonese as in Portuguese, and compares nalga beside nádega, both from Latin natica.^[5] He also reports Nunes's view that the form with /l/ came in later: the regular form was the one with ⟨i⟩, and the form with ⟨dg⟩, found in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda, stands between the old and the modern form.^[5] Wiktionary takes the modern form as borrowed from Old Leonese iulgar, beside the native Old Galician-Portuguese juygar.^[1] García de Diego records the form with /l/ in Portuguese, Galician and Leonese, and the form with ⟨i⟩ as Old Portuguese.^[6]

The same Latin verb is Galician xulgar, Spanish juzgar, Catalan jutjar, French juger, Italian giudicare and Romanian judeca.^[7][1] Corominas records Old Spanish judgar in 1155.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates juigarom to 1273 from Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use julgar of a judgement in which nossas sandeces “our follies” should not be looked at, and of a soul julgada “judged”, and the Crónica Geral of judges who must julgar de dereyto “judge rightly”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense “to try a case” is the oldest;^[2] Houaiss dates the sense “to pass sentence on a person” to the 15th century and “to form an opinion of someone or something” to the 14th.^[2] The cantigas d'amigo already have mal julgar “to think badly of”.^[9] From “to give an opinion” the verb came to mean “to suppose, to think” (julguei que estavas em casa) and, reflexively, “to consider oneself”.^[2][10] In Rio Grande do Sul it also means to judge livestock at shows and horse races.^[11] In Brazil the /l/ at the end of the first syllable is vocalised, and the first syllable sounds [ʒuʊ̯].^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1273 – first record, as juigarom.^[2]
• 13th century – the spellings julgar, iulgal, joyga and judgar.^[2][3]
• 14th century – first record of the sense “to form an opinion”.^[2]
• 1431 – the verb in the Vida do honrado Infante Josafat (witness 1431–1446).^[12]
• 15th century – first record of the sense “to pass sentence on someone”.^[2]
• 1542 – jullguar in a private letter.^[13]
• 1734 – Feijó defines it as “to form a judgement of something”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law) To judge, to decide a case as judge or arbiter.^[2][15][1]
2. (law) To sentence, to pronounce sentence on someone.^[2][15][1]
3. To form an opinion of; to assess, to appraise.^[2][16]
4. To consider, to deem: julgaram a proposta absurda.^[2][17]
5. To suppose, to imagine, to think.^[2][15][1]
6. (rare) To award by judgement, to adjudicate.^[2][15]
7. (reflexive) To consider oneself, to believe oneself to be.^[2][10]

Word family

• julgador
• julgamento
• julgado

Related words

• juiz
• juizado
• juízo
• Latin iūdicō
• Galician xulgar
• Spanish juzgar

Usage notes

A julgar por means “judging by”.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. julgar
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. julgar
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. iūdicō
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 285
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. judicare
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4600
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. juez
9. ^ a b 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. julgar
10. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. julgar
11. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. julgar
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. julgar
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. julgar
14. ^ 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. julgar
15. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. julgar
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. julgar
17. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5501