louvar

Forms

louvar (first-person singular present louvo, first-person singular preterite louvei, past participle louvado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin laudō (“to praise”), from laus (“praise”), through the older Old Galician-Portuguese loar and Old Galician-Portuguese louar.^[2][3][4][1] In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda every form of the verb has ⟨o⟩ for the Latin diphthong ⟨au⟩;^[5] Carolina Michaëlis notes that the Italian copies of the cancioneiros also have the form with ⟨ou⟩, and that this form, with a /v/ that broke the hiatus, slowly became the courtly one.^[5] Houaiss and Cunha treat the modern loar as the popular divergent form of the same verb.^[6][3] Nascentes reports that Leite de Vasconcelos, Nunes and Magne start from a Latin *lodō, and compares the ⟨ou⟩ of couve.^[7] laudar is a learned doublet.^[1]

The same Latin verb is Galician loar, Spanish loar, Catalan lloar, French louer, Italian lodare and Romanian lăuda.^[8][9] Corominas considers that the Spanish verb may have been borrowed from French or Catalan in the Middle Ages, as the native verb was alabar.^[10]

The only cognate proposed for the Latin noun is the Germanic word for a song, lēoþ and *leuþą (“song, poem”), from Proto-Indo-European *lew- (“to sing, praise”); de Vaan and Wiktionary treat it as uncertain.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates louvar to the 13th century and louar to the 14th, and loar too is of the 13th.^[3] In a cantiga d'escarnho Johan Garcia de Guilhade answers a lady who complained que vos nunca louv' en[o] meu cantar “that I never praise you in my song”.^[12] The Cantigas de Santa Maria write loar: Muito devemos, varões, / loar a Santa Maria “we must, men, greatly praise Holy Mary”.^[5] The cantigas d'amigo use louvar-se for “to boast” and a Deus louvado for “thanks be to God”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Viterbo's documents use it for choosing or appointing someone, as a prior who louvou arbitrators for himself and his convent.^[13] Folqman (1755) and Morais (1789) give louvar-se “to submit to the judgement of an arbiter”, the juiz louvado, and Morais (1813) adds “to approve, ratify”, quoting the Ordenações Afonsinas.^[14][15][16] In modern law the verb means to assess a value or decide by a laudo.^[2][17]

Feijó (1734) rejects the spelling loivar.^[18] In the religious sense the verb means to bless and glorify God, and Wikcionário records an intransitive Brazilian use for attending a church service, especially a Pentecostal one.^[2][19]

Timeline

• 13th century – louvar and loar.^[3]
• 14th century – louar;^[3][2] Houaiss's first records louvar and louve.^[3][2]
• 15th century – louvarom; first record of louvamento.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses Louvar with Latin laudo.^[20]
• 1734 – Feijó rejects loivar.^[18]
• 1755 – Folqman records louvar-se em alguém “to take someone as arbiter”.^[14]
• 1798–1799 – Viterbo explains the old sense “to choose, appoint”.^[13]
• 1813 – first record of louvado.^[3]
• 1881 – first record of louvação.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To praise, speak well of;^[2][17][1] (reflexive) to boast: Ela louvou o trabalho da equipa.^[2][17][1]
2. (transitive) To approve, applaud.^[2][17]
3. (transitive) To bless, glorify (God, a saint).^[2][17]
4. (reflexive) louvar-se em: to rely on someone's opinion or information.^[2][21]
5. (reflexive) To trust (in divine mercy).^[2][21]
6. (law) To assess a value, or decide by a laudo.^[2][17]
7. (law, reflexive) To appoint an assessor in a case that depends on valuation.^[2][22]
8. (Brazil, Christianity, intransitive) To attend a church service.^[19]

Word family

• louvação
• louvado
• louvador
• louvamento
• louvor

Related words

• loar
• loa
• laudar
• laudo
• laudável
• Latin laudō

Usage notes

É um louvar a Deus! is an exclamation of surprise or admiration at something extraordinary.^[23][24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. louvar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. louvar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. louvar
5. ^ 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. loar
6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. loar
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 305
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4938
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. laudare
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 674
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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. louvar
13. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 100
14. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. louvar
15. ^ 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, 34
16. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 237
17. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. louvar
18. ^ a b 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. louvar
19. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. louvar
20. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. louvar
21. ^ a b 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. louvar
22. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. louvar
23. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5772
24. ^ 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. louvar