misturar

Forms

misturar (first-person singular present misturo, first-person singular preterite misturei, past participle misturado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote mesturar in the 13th century; the spelling with -i- appears in the 14th.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese mistura + -ar, and was Old Galician-Portuguese mesturar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][5][6] The noun, earlier Old Galician-Portuguese mestura, is from Latin mīxtūra (“a mixing”), from misceō (“to mix”).^[7][8]

Wiktionary also allows a direct descent from a Late Latin mixtūrō, formed on the same noun.^[1] The REW lists Spanish mesturar and the Portuguese verb as derivatives of the Latin noun, and Italian misturare is the Italian parallel.^[9][1] Galician and Spanish keep the noun as Galician mestura and Spanish mestura.^[10][11]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *meyǵ- (“to mix”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria have the verb in its present sense: someone who never ate meat or bread senon quando con cĩisa era mesturado “unless it was mixed with ashes”, and a dark cloud con torvon mesturado “mixed with thunder”.^[4] The same collection also uses it for “to reveal a secret, to tell on someone”: foy o feito da dona mesturar “he went to tell what the lady had done”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to divulge” died out, and the verb kept the meaning “to mix”, which Cardoso glosses with Latin misceo in 1569.^[12] Bluteau in 1712 defines it as taking a thing out of its order or place and confusing it with another.^[13] Morais in 1813 adds the figurative “to confuse”, “to join in one work” (verse with prose), the crossing of breeds, and the pronominal misturar-se “to mingle with others, to meddle”.^[14] Modern dictionaries add stirring ingredients together and the idiom misturar alhos com bugalhos “to mix garlic with oak galls”, that is, to confuse unrelated things.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 13th century – mesturar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, in the senses “to mix” and “to reveal a secret”.^[4][2]
• 14th century – the spelling with -i-.^[2][3]
• c. 1450 – mesturar in the Livro das tres vertudes.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses misturar with Latin misceo.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives the Latin equivalents and the phrase cousa misturada.^[16]
• 1712 – Bluteau's definition.^[13]
• 1813 – Morais records the crossing of breeds and misturar-se.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To mix different things closely together so that their parts are interspersed: misturou farinha e ovos.^[2][17][1]
2. To make up a whole from different elements; to combine things for one purpose: misturar ervas num molho.^[2][5]
3. To put things together in disorder; to confuse, muddle: misturar os papéis.^[2][6][5]
4. To stir something so that its ingredients blend.^[2][1]
5. To cross animals or peoples of different breeds or origins.^[2][5]
6. (reflexive) To mingle with other people; to meddle.^[17][6][1]

Word family

• misturada
• misturado
• misturador
• misturável
• misturação
• mistureba

Related words

• mesclar
• mexer
• misto
• mistura
• Latin misceō
• Spanish mesturar

Usage notes

Misturar alhos com bugalhos means to confuse things that have nothing to do with each other.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. misturar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. misturar
4. ^ a b c d 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. mesturar
5. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. misturar
6. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6222
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mistura
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5622
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. mixtura
11. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. mestura
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. misturar
13. ^ 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. misturar
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 305
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mesturar
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. misturar
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. misturar