molhar

Forms

molhar (first-person singular present molho, first-person singular preterite molhei, past participle molhado)^[1] The 13th-century texts write mollar (mollou “he wet”); the spelling with ⟨lh⟩, molhar, appears in the 14th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *molliō (“to soften”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mollar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Houaiss explains the Vulgar Latin verb as “to soften bread by dipping it in a liquid”, whence “to dip, to soak in liquid”.^[2] Nascentes, Aurélio and the DLP see it as a popular replacement for the classical verb of the same meaning; the DLP gives the origin as only probable.^[4][5][6] The Vulgar Latin verb is built on mollis (“soft”).^[3][1]

The same Vulgar Latin verb is Galician mollar, Spanish mojar, Catalan mullar, Occitan molhar, French mouiller and Romanian muia.^[7][8][1] Corominas explains the Spanish sense in the same way: a thing that is wetted becomes soft.^[9] Nascentes recalls that Brachet compared the German einweichen “to soak”, from weich “soft”, and that Adolfo Coelho had taken the verb from the adjective mole instead.^[10]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *moldu- and Proto-Indo-European *ml̥du- (“soft”), with the cognates मृदु (mṛdu) and blydd; an earlier u-stem was remade into an i-stem in Latin.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb, as mollou, to the 13th century, with the sense “to dip or bathe in a liquid”.^[2][3] The Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437) is the earliest text of the CTA corpus with the verb.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries give the plain sense “to wet with water or another liquid”: Cardoso (1569) renders it by Latin madefacio, and Bluteau adds molhar muito “to drench”.^[13][14] Morais (1789) records the familiar phrase molhar os pés “to get drunk”, and in 1813 molhar a palavra “to drink wine”.^[15][16] Both are still in the Porto dictionary, with molhar a sopa “to have a share”.^[17]

Houaiss adds “to wet with urine” (of a baby, a bed) and, in music, to play with rhythmic freedom.^[2] Schlee records the senses “to wet” and “to water plants” in Rio Grande do Sul, and the TLPGP has the reflexive “to get drunk” in Portugal.^[18][19] Wiktionary gives Macanese mulâ as a descendant.^[1]

Timeline

• 1200s – first record, mollou.^[2]
• 1300s – the spelling molhar.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[12]
• 1500s – first record of the noun molho “sauce”, derived from the verb.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists Molhar.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records molhar os pés “to get drunk”.^[15]
• 1813 – Morais adds molhar a palavra “to drink wine”.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dip or bathe in a liquid; to soak: molhar o pão no leite.^[2][5]
2. To cover with liquid; to wet; to water (plants).^[2][1]
3. To make slightly wet, moisten; to sprinkle (clothes before ironing).^[2][5]
4. (reflexive) To get wet; to be caught in the rain.^[2]
5. (euphemistic) To wet with urine;^[2][1] (reflexive) to wet oneself.^[2][1]
6. (music) To play with rhythmic flexibility.^[2]
7. (colloquial, of a situation) To go wrong.^[1]

Word family

• molhado
• molhadela
• molhadura
• molheira
• molho

Related words

• mole
• amolecer
• Galician mollar
• Spanish mojar

Usage notes

Molhar a palavra “to wet the word” means to have a drink, and molhar os pés “to wet one's feet”, in European Portuguese, to get drunk.^[17][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. molhar
3. ^ 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. molhar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. molhar
5. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. molhar
6. ^ 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. molhar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5646
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *molliare
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mojar
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 339
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. molhar
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. molhar
14. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. molhar
15. ^ 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, 91
16. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 311
17. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6263
18. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. molhar
19. ^ 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. molhar