mastigar

Forms

mastigar (first-person singular present mastigo, first-person singular preterite mastiguei, past participle mastigado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin masticō (“to chew”).^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes and Wiktionary call it a semi-learned word and set it beside mascar, the popular outcome of the same Latin verb.^[4][1] The REW lists only the popular verb and the dialect form masgar as the Portuguese descendants, and García de Diego records the dialect form at Penedono.^[5][6]

The same Latin verb is Galician mastigar, Spanish mascar, Catalan mastegar, French mâcher, Italian masticare and Romanian mesteca.^[5][1] García de Diego finds the same form in old Castilian and in Galician, and treats Spanish masticar as a learned word.^[6]

The Latin verb is post-classical.^[7] Wiktionary takes it from Ancient Greek μαστιχάω (mastikháō).^[1] In Latin it replaced the older verbs for chewing, mandō and mandūcō, the words the Portuguese–Latin dictionaries of the 17th century still give for the Portuguese verb.^[8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the first record of mastigar to the 14th century, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, in the sense of grinding food with the teeth.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Medieval Latin already used the verb for “to meditate, weigh up” as well as “to chew”.^[11][12] In Portuguese, Morais (1813) records the figurative mastigar a doutrina aos ouvintes “to explain a teaching thoroughly to the hearers” and mastigar as palavras “not to pronounce words fully and clearly”, the second with a line of the Auto do Dia de Juízo: já me vós falaes Francês, não o sabeis mastigar “you speak French to me now, you don't know how to chew it”.^[13] Vieira adds “to criticise by repeating what one disapproves of”.^[14] Caldas Aulete gives “to examine, weigh up”, and Houaiss today “to ponder for a long time”.^[15][2] A dialect study from Brazil records mastigar for “to stammer”.^[16]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Barbosa renders mastigar with Latin mando.^[9]
• 1697 – Pereira gives Latin mando and manduco.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as biting and grinding food with the teeth to swallow it.^[17]
• 1813 – Morais records the figurative mastigar as palavras.^[13]
• 1858 – first records of mastigação and mastigador.^[18][19]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To chew, grind food with the teeth before swallowing it: mastigar bem o pão.^[2][20][1]
2. (transitive) To press or bite on something repeatedly with the teeth; to chew (a cigar, a bit), mascar.^[2][15]
3. (figurative) To mumble, pronounce indistinctly.^[2][21]
4. (figurative) To ponder, think over at length.^[2][20]
5. (figurative) To explain something in great detail to make it easy to understand.^[15][13]

Word family

• mastigação
• mastigador
• mastigável

Related words

• mascar
• Latin masticō
• Galician mastigar

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mastigar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. mastigar
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mastigar
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5398
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. masticare
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. mastico
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. mâcher
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mastigar
10. ^ 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. mastigar
11. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. masticare
12. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. masticare 2
13. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 275
14. ^ 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, 158
15. ^ a b c Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. mastigar
16. ^ 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. mastigar
17. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mastigar
18. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mastigação
19. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mastigador
20. ^ a b 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. mastigar
21. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mastigar