meter

Forms

meter (first-person singular present meto, first-person singular preterite meti, past participle metido)^[1] Houaiss records meta-o in 1269 and meter and meteu-sse in the 13th century.^[2] The spelling metter was long in use: Feijó objected in 1734 that the double t came from Latin immittere, Morais in 1813 headed the word metter, and Silva Bastos in 1912 still gives both spellings.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mittō (“to let go, send, throw”), written Old Galician-Portuguese meter in the oldest texts.^[2][6][1] In Vulgar Latin the verb came to mean “to put in a place”, the sense that it has in Portuguese.^[6] The DHLF notes that it was already moving close to Latin pōnō (“to put”) in the imperial period.^[7]

The same Latin verb is Galician meter, Spanish meter, Catalan metre, French mettre and Italian mettere.^[8][1]

The origin of the Latin verb is uncertain.^[7] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to exchange, remove”), an extension of *mey- (“to change”), with a shift of meaning from “exchange” to “give” and “let go, send”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is the form meta-o, dated 1269.^[2] In the cantigas the verb means “to put, place; to send, bring”, and it already has figurative uses such as meter mentes “to pay attention” and meter en coita “to put in distress”.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The medieval uses are much like the modern ones: “to put in”, “to place” (meteu a lança so o braço “he put the lance under his arm”) and, reflexively, “to flow into” of a river.^[9] The cantigas also have “to invest” and “to say, mention”.^[10]

The reflexive meter-se developed the senses “to meddle”, “to get involved with” and “to take up a trade”, and the transitive verb “to cause” a feeling (meter medo “to frighten”).^[2][11] In Brazil the intransitive verb is a vulgar word for sexual intercourse.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1269 – meta-o, the first dated record.^[2]
• 13th century – meter in the cantigas of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda.^[9]
• 1416 – first occurrence in the CTA corpus, in the Vida do Cativo Monge Confesso.^[12]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau heads the word meter, ou metter “to put one thing inside another”.^[13]
• 1734 – Feijó argues for the spelling with one t.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To put in, insert; to make something go into something else.^[2][14][1]
2. (transitive) To put, place, store: Meti as cartas numa caixa.^[2][11][1]
3. (transitive) To include in a list or group; to admit someone to a school, company or institution.^[2][14]
4. (transitive) To cause or inspire a feeling: meter medo, meter pena.^[2][11]
5. (transitive) To invest money.^[2]
6. (reflexive) To meddle, interfere in something that does not concern one.^[2][14][1]
7. (reflexive) To get involved with someone or in something; to take up a trade or career.^[2][1]
8. (reflexive) To hide, shut oneself away; to head off in a direction.^[2]
9. (Brazil, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse.^[2][1]

Word family

• metido

Related words

• cometer
• comprometer
• intrometer
• prometer
• remeter
• submeter
• Latin mittō
• Spanish meter

Usage notes

Bluteau and Morais still wrote the verb metter;^[13][4] Morais's 1813 edition only refers meter to it.^[13][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. meter
3. ^ 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. meter
4. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 296
5. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. meter
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. meter
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. mettre
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5616
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. meter
10. ^ a b 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. meter
11. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. meter
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. meter
13. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. meter
14. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. meter