jurar

Forms

jurar (first-person singular present juro, first-person singular preterite jurei, past participle jurado)^[1] Houaiss records iurar (1152), jurauõ (14th century) and jurarom (1392) among the medieval forms.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin jūrō (“to swear, take an oath”), written Old Galician-Portuguese jurar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed on jūs in its old sense of a ritual formula with the force of law.^[5][6] Wiktionary traces it ultimately to Proto-Indo-European *h₂yew-.^[1]

The same Latin verb is Galician xurar, Spanish jurar, Catalan jurar, French jurer, Italian giurare and Romanian jura.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, 1152, comes from Machado's records.^[2] Cunha dates the word to the 13th century.^[3] In the cantigas it is the swearing of an oath: Afonso X writes juro par Deus lo santo / que manto / non tragerei “I swear by holy God that I will wear no cloak”, and the Crónica Troiana has uos juro parlos deuses “I swear to you by the gods”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The medieval lyric already has set phrases: jurar a finas e a fio “to swear firmly, without hesitation” in a cantiga of Afonso X.^[8] Bluteau (1712–1728) defines the verb as affirming or denying with an oath and lists jurar falso “to swear falsely”.^[9] Morais (1789) records jurar alguém por seu Rei “to acknowledge someone as king by oath and bind oneself to obey him”.^[10] The sense “to curse, utter oaths” is in Houaiss, Priberam and Schlee's dictionary of Rio Grande do Sul.^[2][11][12]

Timeline

• 1152 – iurar, the first date Houaiss gives.^[2]
• 13th century – the cantigas of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and of Afonso X.^[8][3]
• 1393 – the spelling jurar.^[2]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) uses the word.^[13]
• 1712 – Bluteau lists jurar falso.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records jurar alguém por seu Rei.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To swear, to declare or promise under oath: Jurou que tinha dito a verdade.^[2][14][1]
2. (intransitive) To take an oath: jurar sobre os Evangelhos.^[2][11]
3. To assert firmly, to assure: Juro que não fui eu.^[2][14]
4. To declare publicly (love, hatred, loyalty): jurar fidelidade.^[2]
5. jurar em To trust completely in (what someone says).^[2]
6. To recognise by oath: jurar alguém por rei.^[2][10]
7. To invoke (a sacred name): jurar o nome de Deus em vão.^[2][14]
8. To curse, to utter imprecations.^[2][11][12]

Word family

• jura
• jurado
• jurador
• juramento
• juramentar

Related words

• perjurar
• conjurar
• Latin jūrō
• Galician xurar
• Spanish jurar

Usage notes

A dialect survey of 1974 records jurar “to earn interest” in Portugal.^[15]

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 f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. jurar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. jurar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. jurar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. iūrō
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c 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. jurar
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. jurar
10. ^ a b c 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, 748
11. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. jurar
12. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. jurar
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. jurar
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. jurar
15. ^ 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. jurar