obrigar

Forms

obrigar (first-person singular present obrigo, first-person singular preterite obriguei, past participle obrigado)^[1] The 13th-century texts write obligar; the form with -r-, obrigamos “we bind ourselves”, is recorded in 1344.^[2][3] Feijó (1734) lists the popular spelling oubrigar beside obrigar.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin obligō (“to tie up; to bind by a duty”), written Old Galician-Portuguese obligar and later Old Galician-Portuguese obrigar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][5][1] Wiktionary considers it a semi-learned word, taken from the written language rather than handed down by speech alone.^[1] The Latin /l/ after the /b/ became /r/, as the dated forms show: the spelling with ⟨l⟩ in the 13th century, with ⟨r⟩ by 1344.^[2]

The same Latin verb is Spanish obligar, Catalan obligar, Italian obbligare and French obliger.^[6][7]

The Latin word is formed from ob- (“towards, against”) and ligō (“to bind, fasten”).^[8][1] Houaiss glosses it “to tie on all sides; to bind morally; to be bound to someone by a duty”.^[2] Wiktionary takes the simple verb back to Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ- (“to bind”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 13th century, in the sense “to bind someone by a legal or moral duty”.^[2] The Crónica Troiana uses it as a reflexive, “to bind oneself to do something”: obrigome a atanto que se depoys for mentira que me deytedes en hun gran fogo “I bind myself to this: that if it later proves a lie, you throw me into a great fire”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense came first, and with it the reflexive “to commit oneself” and the use of property as security: Houaiss and Priberam give “to pledge, mortgage” (obrigar as joias, obrigar os bens).^[2][10] Folqman's dictionary of 1755 has obrigar todos os seus bens “to mortgage all one's goods” beside obrigar a alguem a fazer alguma cousa “to force someone to do something”.^[11] Morais (1813) separates the two: “to impose an obligation” and “to use force, violence, constraint”, his example being a man made to sign with a pistol in his hand.^[12]

A milder sense grew out of the moral one: to bind someone by gratitude or affection, to put them in one's debt; the original Caldas Aulete quotes Garrett for it.^[13][2]

Timeline

• 1200s – first records, spelt obligar.^[2][3]
• 1344 – the form with -r-, obrigamos.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary renders Obrigar by Latin obligo.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds the participle obrigada cousa “a thing bound, pledged”.^[15]
• 1734 – Feijó notes the popular spelling oubrigar.^[4]
• 1755 – Folqman lists the senses “to mortgage” and “to compel”.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais defines the verb as “to impose an obligation” and “to use force”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bind by a legal or moral obligation;^[2][16] (reflexive) to commit oneself: O acordo obriga as duas partes.^[2][16]
2. To force, compel; to make someone do something by pressure or necessity: A chuva obrigou-nos a voltar.^[2][1]
3. (figurative) To leave no choice but a certain action; to urge, impel.^[16][1]
4. To subject to a condition; to expose: obrigar alguém ao ridículo.^[2]
5. To give as security; to pledge, mortgage.^[2][10]
6. (reflexive) To run into debt, pledging one's goods.^[2]
7. To bind by gratitude or affection; to oblige, win over.^[2][17]
8. To subdue, master.^[2]

Word family

• obrigação
• obrigado
• obrigatório
• obrigatoriedade
• desobrigar

Related words

• ligar
• Latin obligō
• Spanish obligar

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 q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. obrigar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. obrigar
4. ^ 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. obrigar
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. obrigar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6012a
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 359
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. obligō
9. ^ 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. obrigar
10. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. obrigar
11. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. obrigar
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 356
13. ^ 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. obrigar
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. obrigar
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. obrigar
16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. obrigar
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6604