lastimar

Forms

lastimar (first-person singular present lastimo, first-person singular preterite lastimei, past participle lastimado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin blastēmō, an altered form of blasphēmō (“to revile, blaspheme”), which is from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō, “to speak profanely, slander”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas explains the change of /f/ to /t/ as a dissimilation of the labials in a popular *blaspēmō.^[5] Priberam and Porto Editora say the Portuguese verb came through Spanish lastimar.^[6][7] The learned blasfemar is its doublet.^[1]

In the other Romance languages the Latin verb kept the sense “to blame, blaspheme”: French blâmer, Catalan blastomar, Italian bestemmiare.^[5] Beekes considers the Greek verb and its noun βλασφημία (blasphēmía) older than the adjective βλάσφημος (blásphēmos), and leaves the origin open.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 14th century.^[2][3] In the Crónica Troiana it means “to hurt, wound, afflict”: mal me ha lastimado et quebrantado “he has hurt and broken me badly”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Corominas traces in Spanish and Portuguese a path from “to defame” to “to outrage, injure”, and then, by a kind of euphemism, to “to wound physically” on one side and “to cause pity” on the other.^[5] Nascentes and Aurélio put the physical sense first and derive “to feel sorry for” from it, as pity for the one who was hurt.^[10][11] The older dictionaries still give “to hurt”: Pereira (1697) glosses it dolore afficere, laedere, Bluteau (1712–1728) “to do something to someone that pains him” and Feijó (1734) “to offend someone”.^[12][13][14] Morais (1813) leads with “to cause pain, grief” and records lastimar-se “to feel pity; to lament oneself to move others to pity”.^[15] In the modern language the main sense is “to deplore, lament” and “to pity”.^[2][4]

The noun lástima is dated by Cunha to 1813, and Cunha's addenda give a lástima of 1549.^[3] The adjectives lastimador and lastimeiro appear in the 15th century and lastimável in 1844.^[3]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, with lastimado “hurt” in the Crónica Troiana.^[2][3][9]
• 15th century – lastimador and lastimeyro.^[3]
• 1549 – lástima.^[3]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it dolore afficere, laedere “to cause pain, to harm”.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais: “to cause pain, grief”, and lastimar-se “to feel pity”.^[15]
• 1844 – lastimável.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To deplore, lament, regret.^[2][11][1]
2. To feel pity for, be sorry for.^[2][6]
3. To cause pain or grief to; to afflict.^[2][4]
4. (reflexive) To complain, bewail one's lot.^[11][7]
5. (southern Brazil) To hurt, injure (a limb, a person or animal); (reflexive) to get hurt.^[2][16][17]

Word family

• lástima
• lastimador
• lastimável
• lastimeiro
• lastimoso

Related words

• blasfemar
• Spanish lastimar

Usage notes

Houaiss gives the Rio Grande do Sul sense “to hurt, injure” its own article and takes it from the Spanish of the River Plate, where lastimar “to wound, harm” is used, a sense Corominas finds in Spanish as early as 1490.^[2][18] Nascentes and Aurélio also derive the southern Brazilian sense from Platine Spanish.^[10][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lastimar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lastimar
4. ^ 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. lastimar
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 591
6. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. lastimar
7. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5593
8. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. βλασφημέω
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. lastimar
10. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lastimar
11. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lastimar
12. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lastimar
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lastimar
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. lastimar
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 207
16. ^ 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. lastimar
17. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. lastimar
18. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lastimar