medir

Forms

medir (first-person singular present meço, first-person singular preterite medi, past participle medido)^[1] Houaiss records medir and medio in the 13th century and midir and mydyremos in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mētior (“to measure”), written Old Galician-Portuguese medir in the oldest texts.^[2][1] The Latin verb was deponent;^[3][4][5][6] Nascentes, the Aurélio and the REW start from an active Vulgar Latin *metiō, and Cunha from the same active verb in the Medieval Latin of Portugal.^[3][4][5][6]

Corominas notes that the verb survived only in Spanish, Portuguese and Sardinian: Spanish medir (from 1171), Galician medir and Sardinian medire.^[7][5][1]

De Vaan explains the Latin verb as made from a noun *mēti- (“measurement”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”), the root of Ancient Greek μῆτις (mêtis, “wisdom, skill”) and Old English mǣd (“measure”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology cites the Cantigas de Santa Maria, where a man decingeu log' a cinta e a mua mediu ben “at once took off his belt and measured the mule well”.^[9] In a cantiga d'escarnho Fernan Paez de Talamancos taunts someone pois tu per saco medes “since you measure by the sack”.^[9][10] The Crónica Troiana has çinco pees ben medidos “five full feet”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defines the verb by the applying of a set measure to find a thing's size, and lists the branches of geometry that measure heights, surfaces and solids.^[11] Morais in 1789 adds the figurative “to examine”, “to regulate”, as in medir os prémios pelo merecimento, and medir a espada “to fight” with someone.^[12] Feijó in 1734 notes the irregular present meço, medes, mede, rejecting medo and mido.^[13]

The modern dictionaries add “to have a given size”, “to scan a verse”, “to weigh one's words” and “to look someone up and down”, and the pronominal “to compete with”.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, medir and medio.^[2][6]
• 15th century – the forms midir and mydyremos.^[2]
• 1491 – medir in the Vida de Santo Elói.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin metior.^[16]
• 1734 – Feijó discusses the forms meço and mede.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records medir a espada “to fight”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To measure, to find the size or amount of something by a unit or instrument: Mediu a sala com uma fita métrica.^[2][1]
2. (transitive) To have a given size: A ponte mede duzentos metros.^[2][17]
3. (transitive) To estimate roughly, by eye or by paces.^[2][18]
4. (transitive, figurative) To weigh the importance or value of; to assess: medir os riscos.^[2][14]
5. (transitive, figurative) To use with restraint; to moderate: medir bem cada frase.^[2][4]
6. (transitive, prosody) To count the syllables of a verse; to scan.^[2][19]
7. (transitive) To look someone up and down, in challenge or to judge him.^[2][17]
8. (pronominal) To compete or fight with; to rival: Ninguém se mede com ele no xadrez.^[2][14]

Word family

• medida
• medidor
• medição
• comedir
• desmedido
• meças

Related words

• mensurar
• dimensão
• Latin mētior
• Spanish medir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. medir
3. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. medir
4. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. medir
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5552
6. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. medir
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 11
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. medir
10. ^ 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. medir
11. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. medir
12. ^ 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, 68
13. ^ 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. medir
14. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6042
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. medir
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. medir
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. medir
18. ^ 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. medir
19. ^ 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. medir