lamber

Forms

lamber (first-person singular present lambo, first-person singular preterite lambi, past participle lambido)^[1] Houaiss records lãber, lamber and the first person lanbo in the 14th century and lãberã in the 15th.^[2] A variant limber was recorded in Portugal in 1970.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lambō (“to lick”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lãber and Old Galician-Portuguese lamber in the 14th century.^[2][4][1]

Corominas notes that in Romance the Latin verb lives on only in Portuguese, Spanish and Sardinian: beside Galician lamber there is Spanish lamer, whose first record, in the poem of Alexander, is Old Spanish lamber.^[5][6] The Asturian form is llamber.^[1]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *lamb-, with a nasal infix in a root meaning “to lick”, and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *leh₂b-; both compare Ancient Greek λάπτω (láptō, “to lick”) and Old English lapian (“to lap up”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first records are from the 14th century, already in several spellings.^[2] Cardoso's dictionary (1569) renders it with Latin lambo and lingo, in the literal sense “to lick”, which is also that of the Livro dos Mártires (a witness of 1513).^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712) defines it as taking up a liquid with the tongue, and also records a sense “to spend on feasts and merrymaking”.^[10] Morais (1789) adds the poetic use of rivers that touch their banks and slowly wear them away, and his edition of 1813 cites Camões for it and has flames that lick.^[11][12]

Houaiss lists the figurative senses of today: to touch lightly, to destroy (of a fire), to devour, to polish a work too much, to delight in something, and in Brazil to flatter.^[2] The derivatives lambiscar (17th century), lambedor and lambida (1813), lambão and lambidela (1881) followed.^[4]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records, spelt lãber, lamber and lanbo.^[2][4]
• 15th century – spelt lãberã.^[2]
• 1513 – in the Livro dos Mártires.^[9]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin lambo and lingo.^[8]
• 17th century – first record of lambiscar.^[4]
• 1712 – Bluteau records the sense “to spend on feasting”.^[10]
• 1734 – Feijó prescribes the spelling lamber against lember.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records rivers that lick their banks.^[11]
• 1813 – first records of lambedor and lambida.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lick; reflexive, to lick oneself: A gata lambia as patas ao sol.^[2][1][14]
2. (figurative) To touch lightly, brush past: of waves, wind or flames.^[2][15]
3. (figurative) To destroy, lay waste (of a fire).^[2][16]
4. To eat (something) by licking it.^[2]
5. To eat greedily, devour.^[2][17]
6. (figurative) To polish (a piece of work) with excessive care.^[2][16]
7. (reflexive, figurative) To delight in something, be very pleased.^[2][16]
8. To wear away, corrode.^[2]
9. (Brazil, informal) To flatter servilely.^[2]
10. (Brazil, intransitive) Of a paper balloon, to catch fire.^[2]

Word family

• lambedor
• lambida
• lambidela
• lambão
• lambiscar
• lambugem

Related words

• Latin lambo
• Galician lamber
• Spanish lamer

Usage notes

Common idioms are lamber os beiços “to lick one's lips, relish” and lamber as botas or lamber os pés to someone, “to flatter”.^[16][17]

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 o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lamber
3. ^ 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. lamber
4. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lamber
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 565
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4865
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lamber
9. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. lamber
10. ^ 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. lamber
11. ^ a b 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. 2, 4
12. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 201
13. ^ 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. lamber
14. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lamber
15. ^ 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. lamber
16. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5557
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. lamber