mostrar

Forms

mostrar (first-person singular present mostro, first-person singular preterite mostrei, past participle mostrado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese also wrote monstrar, and had emostrar and amostrar;^[2][3][4] Houaiss records monstraua in the 14th century and mostrrou in the 15th.^[2][3][4] Feijó (1734) still warns that the word is mostrar, not monstrar.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mōnstrō (“to point out, show”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mostrar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes derives it from the Latin form without /n/, ⟨mostrare⟩; the OLD records spellings with ⟨most-⟩ in Latin itself, and Houaiss calls the verb a popular or familiar word.^[6][7][2]

The same Latin word is Galician mostrar, Spanish mostrar, Catalan mostrar, Occitan mostrar, French montrer, Italian mostrare and Romanian mustra.^[8][1]

The Latin verb is formed from mōnstrum (“portent, prodigy”), a sign by which the gods made their will known.^[7][2] The noun is in turn formed from moneō (“to remind, warn”) with the instrument suffix -trum.^[1][9] Wiktionary traces the Latin verb to a causative of Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology has the verb in two charters of 1261 and 1262, both about producing a document as proof: o priuilegio … que mostrauan … et prometendóó a mostrar e a prouar “the privilege … that they showed … and promising to show and prove it”, and tragendo esta carta e mostrandoa “bringing this letter and showing it”.^[4] Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use it for “to make see, show” and for “to signify”: in the Crónica Troiana a dream mostraua grande yra “showed great anger”.^[4] It also meant “to teach”: a document of 1310 names a Martim Martins que mostra os Moozinhos, who taught the boys, and the cantigas have the senses “teach” and “argue, say”.^[10][11] Morais (1789) still lists “to teach” beside “to show”, “to point out”, “to make known” and “to feign”.^[12]

Modern Portuguese keeps “to show, exhibit” as the main sense, with “to prove, demonstrate”, “to reveal (a feeling)” and “to pretend”.^[2][13] Porto Editora still lists “to teach” among its senses.^[14] Its derivative amostra “sample” is recorded from 1500.^[3]

Timeline

• 1261 – mostrauan and mostrar in a charter; in 1262 mostrandoa “showing it”.^[4]
• 1310 – a document uses the verb for “to teach”.^[10]
• 14th century – Houaiss records monstraua.^[2]
• 1416 – the Vida de Santo Aleixo uses the verb.^[15]
• 1500 – first record of amostra “sample”.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders mostrar with Latin ostendo and indico.^[16]
• 1712 – Bluteau lists mostrar ao dedo “to point at with the finger”.^[17]
• 1734 – Feijó rejects the spelling monstrar.^[5]
• 1789 – Morais lists the senses “show”, “point out”, “feign” and “teach”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To show, put on view, exhibit: Mostrou-nos as fotografias da viagem.^[2][13][1]
2. (reflexive) To appear, let oneself be seen; to show oneself to be: mostrou-se cansado.^[2][18]
3. To make evident; to prove, demonstrate.^[2][13]
4. To point out, indicate: mostrar o caminho.^[2][13][14]
5. To denote, be a sign of.^[2][13]
6. To reveal a feeling or quality: Mostrava pouca paciência.^[2][19]
7. (of a surface) To reflect an image.^[2]
8. To feign, pretend (aparentar).^[2][13][14]
9. To teach (ensinar).^[14]
10. To show off.^[1]

Word family

• mostra
• amostra
• amostrar
• amostragem
• entremostrar

Related words

• demonstrar
• monstro
• Latin mōnstrō
• Galician mostrar

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 k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mostrar
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. mostrar
4. ^ 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. mostrar
5. ^ 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. mostrar
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mostrar
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. monstrare
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 164
11. ^ 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. mostrar
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. s.v. mostrar
13. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mostrar
14. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6337
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mostrar
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mostrar
17. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mostrar
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mostrar
19. ^ 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. mostrar