nutrir

Forms

nutrir (first-person singular present nutro, first-person singular preterite nutri, past participle nutrido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin nūtriō (“to suckle, nourish”), a learned form.^[2][3] Wiktionary calls it semi-learned and compares the inherited Old Galician-Portuguese nodrir of the medieval language.^[1] Houaiss treats the medieval forms of that verb as old forms of the same word and so dates it to the 13th century, while Lorenzo's chronology, following Machado, dates the learned form itself to the 17th.^[4][5]

The inherited outcomes of the Latin verb are Old Spanish nodrir, Catalan nodrir and French nourrir (earlier Old French nodrir). The learned Spanish nutrir matches the Portuguese verb.^[3][6][7]

The Latin verb is related to nūtrīx (“nurse”).^[8] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Italic *snoutrjō, from *snew-tr-ih₂ (“female nurser”), built on a root *snew- (“to suckle”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The medieval verb was Old Galician-Portuguese nodrir: the Cantigas de Santa Maria say to the Virgin criast' e nodriste “you raised and nourished (him)”, and a cantiga d'escarnho of Pero da Ponte uses it of bringing up a daughter.^[5][9] The same cantigas have Old Galician-Portuguese nodrecer “to feed”: carne... con que nos nodrece “flesh with which he feeds us”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) lists nutrir with Latin nutrio, and Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as to nourish, to turn food into the body's substance, quoting Jacinto Freire.^[11][12] Vieira (1873) gives the senses to breastfeed a child, to keep alive, to provide with food and, by extension, to educate, and figuratively to keep and sustain feelings.^[13] The figurative uses, to harbour hopes or resentment and to feel affection for someone, are frequent in the modern language.^[4][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – the medieval nodrir and nodrecer in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[5][10]
• 17th century – first records of nutrir.^[5]
• 1697 – Pereira lists nutrir.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it.^[12]
• 1734 – Feijó glosses it as “to make nutrition”.^[15]
• 1873 – Vieira records the senses “to educate” and “to keep (a feeling)”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also reflexive) To provide with food or nourishment, alimentar; to feed oneself.^[4][16][1]
2. (transitive) To be the food of.^[4][17]
3. (intransitive) To be nutritious.^[4][18]
4. (transitive) To produce food for (a people, a country).^[4][16]
5. (intransitive) To put on weight;^[4][16][1] (transitive) to fatten animals.^[4][16][1]
6. (reflexive, figurative) To draw sustenance from, to live on.^[4]
7. (transitive) To make grow, to feed (discontent, a movement).^[4][17]
8. (transitive) To educate, to instruct; educar.^[4][16]
9. (transitive) To give strength to, to invigorate.^[4][19]
10. (transitive) To harbour, to keep within oneself: nutrir esperanças “to cherish hopes”.^[4][16]
11. (transitive, with por) To feel (an emotion) towards someone.^[4][14]

Word family

• desnutrir

Related words

• nutrição
• nutriente
• nutritivo
• nutriz
• Latin nutrio
• Spanish nutrir
• French nourrir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. nutrir
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6006
4. ^ 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. nutrir
5. ^ 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. nodrir
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. nutrire
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. nourrir
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. nūtriō
9. ^ 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. nodrir
10. ^ a b 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. nodrecer
11. ^ 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. nutrir
12. ^ 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. nutrir
13. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 489
14. ^ a b 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. nutrir
15. ^ 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. nutrir
16. ^ a b c d e f 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. nutrir
17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. nutrir
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. nutrir
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6586