levantar

Forms

levantar (first-person singular present levanto, first-person singular preterite levantei, past participle levantado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese texts have levantaron and leuantan in the 13th century, aleuantar and levãte in the 14th, leuamtar and llevantar in the 15th.^[2] The prefixed alevantar is still a variant of the verb, and dialect surveys in Portugal record alavantar, aleventar and labantar.^[1][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *levantō, written Old Galician-Portuguese levantar in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] The Vulgar Latin verb was formed on levāns, the present participle of levō (“to lift, raise; to lighten, relieve”).^[2][5][6][1] Nascentes explains the new verb by the history of the old one: the Latin verb needed a replacement because it had itself taken over the place of ferre (“to carry”), the sense of levar.^[5] The Academia's DLP and Michaelis instead see a Portuguese formation, from Portuguese levante + -ar, and Silva Bastos also derived it from that noun.^[7][8][9]

The same Vulgar Latin verb is Galician levantar, Asturian llevantar and Spanish levantar; the DLE derives the Spanish verb from levante, the old present participle of levar.^[1][10]

The Latin verb is a derivative of levis (“light in weight”), which goes back to *leχu- and *h₁legʷʰ-u- (“light”).^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria already use the verb for raising something (vivo o levantaron is said of a man lifted up alive), and above all reflexively, for getting up (quando se levantava, hũa oraçon dizia “when he got up, he said a prayer”) and for a storm, a wind or a fire that arises (levantou-s'o mar con tormenta “the sea rose up in a storm”).^[13] In the satirical cantigas it is a hunting term, to start game from its cover (quando lébor levantasse “when he flushed a hare”), and it is used of rising from bed.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the reflexive sense “to wake up, get out of bed” and the figurative sense “to give rise to, provoke” to the 14th century, and adds that the medieval language also used the verb for “to strut” and “to begin”, senses that have since died out.^[2] Barbosa (1611) has levantar-se for rising from a place, and Folqman (1755) records the verb for raising a siege, breaking camp and flushing game.^[15][16] Morais (1789) adds “to build”, “to raise one's voice”, “to raise someone from the dust” (to promote a person of humble birth) and “to proclaim someone king”.^[17][18]

From “to raise” came the senses of money and administration (“to raise a price”, “to collect, levy”, “to withdraw a deposit”), of politics (“to stir up”, reflexively “to rise in revolt”) and of surveying (“to draw up a map or plan”), as well as “to lift a ban, end a session”.^[2][19] In Portugal levantar is also used intransitively of rain stopping and of a wine whose fermenting must brings the skins to the surface.^[20][3] In volleyball it is “to set” the ball for an attack.^[1] The verb passed into the Macanese creole as levantâ.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use levantar and levantar-se.^[2][13]
• 14th century – first record of the senses “to get out of bed” and “to give rise to”, and of the variant aleuantar.^[2]
• 1542 – levãtarẽ in a private letter.^[21]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary renders levantar with Latin tollo, erigo and levo.^[15]
• 1755 – Folqman lists levantar o sitio, levantar o campo and levantar a caça.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records levantar por Rei “to proclaim king”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To set upright or stand up;^[2][6][1] (reflexive) to get to one's feet: Levantou-se para dar o lugar à senhora.^[2][6][1]
2. (reflexive) To get up from bed; of a heavenly body, to rise.^[2][1]
3. To lift or raise to a higher position; to hoist (a flag); to make (dust, sand) fly up.^[2][19][1]
4. To make higher or louder: Não levantes a voz comigo.^[2][6]
5. To erect or build (a wall, a house, a statue).^[2][6][1]
6. To give rise to, provoke; to raise (a question, a hypothesis).^[2][19][1]
7. (reflexive) To recover (from an illness or a setback).^[2][1]
8. To collect, levy or raise (money); to withdraw (a deposit).^[2][20][1]
9. To recruit (troops); to stir up;^[2][1] (reflexive) to revolt, rise up against.^[2][1]
10. To put an end to (a siege, a ban, a session).^[2][19]
11. To survey and draw up (a map or plan); to make an inventory of.^[2][19]
12. (intransitive) To go up in price;^[20][19] (Portugal) of rain, to stop.^[20][19]
13. (volleyball) To set the ball.^[1]

Word family

• alevantar
• levantadiço
• levantamento
• levante
• levantino

Related words

• levar
• leve
• Latin levō
• Spanish levantar

Usage notes

Rio Grande do Sul has many set phrases with the verb: levantar a perdiz “to let a secret out”, levantar o cavalo “to back down”, levantar pela cola “to help someone who is in difficulty”.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v 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. levantar
3. ^ a b 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. levantar
4. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. levantar
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. levantar
6. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. levantar
7. ^ 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. levantar
8. ^ 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. levantar
9. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. levantar
10. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. levantar
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. levis
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. leuo
13. ^ 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. levantar
14. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. levantar
15. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. levantar
16. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. levantar
17. ^ 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, 17
18. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 217
19. ^ a b c d e f g Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5660
20. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. levantar
21. ^ 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. levantar
22. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. levantar