mijar

Forms

mijar (first-person singular present mijo, first-person singular preterite mijei, past participle mijado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote meiar and mejar.^[2][3] Houaiss records meijar in 1611, and Feijó (1734) still gives meijar beside mijar.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin meiō (“to urinate”), the classical Latin verb moved from the third conjugation to the first.^[4][2][6][1] The oldest texts write Old Galician-Portuguese mejar and Old Galician-Portuguese meiar.^[2][3] The first-conjugation form is recorded from the 4th century in several Latin grammarians, among them Diomedes and Priscian.^[7][8] Nascentes notes that the move of the verb into the first conjugation has not been explained, and cites an older view that the vowel /i/ of the first syllable is due to the following palatal sound.^[8]

The same Latin verb is Galician mexar, Asturian mexar, Spanish mear, Sardinian meare and Dalmatian miur.^[9][10][1] Corominas observes that the other Romance languages, from Romanian to Catalan, preferred instead a type *pissiō of imitative origin.^[7]

The Latin verb goes back to *meiɣjō and *h₃meyǵʰ- (“to urinate”).^[1][11] Its cognates include Ancient Greek ὀμείχω (omeíkhō), Sanskrit मेहति (méhati) and Old Norse míga.^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb appears in the 13th century in two cantigas d'escarnho of Afonso X: que lhi mejasse “that he should piss on him” and Med' ei do pertigueiro tal que mejo “I am so afraid of the verger that I piss myself”.^[2][3][12] The second line already joins the verb to fear, a sense the dictionaries record much later.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The dictionaries from 1697 on give the plain sense “to urinate” and translate it with the Latin verb.^[13][14] Bluteau lists mijar na cama “to wet the bed” and the reflexive mijar-se.^[14] Morais (1813) adds mijar-se de medo “to be very afraid”, and Caldas Aulete the slang mijar ossos “to give birth”.^[15][16] Houaiss lists the extended sense “to let out any liquid” and “to scold harshly”, and Michaelis “to treat with contempt”.^[4][17] In Brazil mijar para trás means to go back on one's word.^[18][16]

Timeline

• 13th century – mejasse and mejo in cantigas d'escarnho of Afonso X.^[2][3]
• 14th century – Houaiss's first date for mijar, from Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese.^[4]
• 1611 – the spelling meijar.^[4]
• 1620 – the form migou in a private letter.^[19]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro glosses mijar with Latin meio.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau lists mijar na cama and mijar-se.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais defines the verb as “to pass urine from the urethra”.^[20]
• 1813 – Morais adds mijar-se de medo.^[15]
• 1844 – first records of the nouns mijo and mijada.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (informal) To urinate, piss;^[4][21][1] (reflexive) to wet oneself.^[4][21][1]
2. (informal, by extension) To let any liquid run out or leak: A mangueira rota mijava água por todo o lado.^[4][17]
3. (informal, reflexive) To be very frightened, to show cowardice; hence the phrase mijar-se de medo.^[4][15][1]
4. (informal, with em) To scold someone harshly, or to treat them with contempt.^[4][17][22]

Word family

• mijacão
• mijada
• mijo
• mijadela
• mijão

Related words

• Galician mexar
• Spanish mear

Usage notes

Mijar fora do penico “to piss outside the chamber pot” means to behave improperly or step out of line.^[4][16] In Brazil mijar para trás means to break a promise.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. mijar
3. ^ a b c d e 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. mejar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mijar
5. ^ 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. mijar
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mijar
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 8
8. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 333
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5468
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. mejar
13. ^ 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. mijar
14. ^ 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. mijar
15. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 299
16. ^ 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. mijar
17. ^ a b c 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. mijar
18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mijar
19. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. mijar
20. ^ 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, 81
21. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mijar
22. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. mijar