manter

Forms

manter (first-person singular present mantenho, first-person singular preterite mantive, past participle mantido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had the infinitive manteer, also written mantẽer and mãteer, and forms such as manten, mãte and mantinha.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *manūteneō (“to hold in the hand; to support”), written Old Galician-Portuguese manteer in the oldest texts.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin verb joins manus (“hand”), in the ablative “with the hand”, and teneō (“to hold”).^[3][4][1]

The same verb is Galician manter, Spanish mantener, Catalan mantenir, French maintenir and Italian mantenere.^[6][1] The DHLF takes the spread of these forms, in every Romance language except Romanian, as a sign that the compound already existed in Latin.^[7] Wiktionary notes instead that it is unknown in the southern varieties and appears in Latin texts only from the 11th century, so that the Medieval Latin word may rather be modelled on the Romance verbs.^[1] Vieira took the Portuguese verb from Old Occitan mantener.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria call the Virgin a que nos manten “she who sustains us”, and the troubadour Pero da Ponte writes manteer;^[2] Machado had dated the form manteuesem to 1282.^[2] The first senses are “to sustain, to support, to keep alive”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana uses manteer for supporting great households and for keeping up a war, and the Crónica Geral for keeping one's life and estate and for feeding oneself.^[2] Bluteau (1712) still gives “to give the food needed for life” first, with manter guerra and the figurative manter os olhos from Camões.^[9] Morais (1813) adds keeping one's word, a secret or loyalty, and keeping something in the same state.^[10] In the modern language “to keep, to maintain (in a state)” comes first, with “to provide for” and “to keep (a promise, an opinion)”.^[3][11][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – manter and manteer in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the cantigas.^[3][4][2]
• 1282 – the form manteuesem.^[2]
• 14th century – first records of mantença, manteúdo and mantimento.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary gives the Latin alo “to nourish”.^[13]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives manter guerra and manter os olhos.^[9]
• 1813 – Morais adds “to keep one's word, a secret”.^[10]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives the verb from Provençal.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To keep someone or something in a position, state or condition;^[3][11][1] (reflexive) to stay, to remain: manter a porta fechada;^[3][11][1] manter-se calmo.^[3][11][1]
2. To maintain, to preserve; to keep in good order.^[3][12]
3. To keep (a feeling or hope); to retain.^[3]
4. To keep (one's word, a promise); to hold to (an opinion or principle), to uphold.^[3][11]
5. To hold up, to bear (a weight).^[3][12][1]
6. To support, to provide for;^[3][11][1] (reflexive) to support oneself: Trabalha para manter a família.^[3][11][1]
7. (reflexive) To feed oneself; to keep going, to survive.^[3][14]

Word family

• mantença
• mantenedor
• manteúdo
• mantimento

Related words

• mão
• ter
• manutenção
• Spanish mantener
• French maintenir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. manteer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. manter
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. manter
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. manter
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5340
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. maintenir
8. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 109
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. manter
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 263
11. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. manter
12. ^ 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. manter
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. manter
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. manter