orar

Forms

orar (first-person singular present oro, first-person singular preterite orei, past participle orado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ōrō (“to plead; to pray, beseech”), recorded as Old Galician-Portuguese orar from the early 13th century.^[2][3][4][5] Houaiss, Cunha and Nascentes give only the Latin verb.^[1] Wiktionary treats the word as an early borrowing from Latin rather than an inherited one.^[1] The same Latin verb is Spanish orar, Catalan orar, Italian orare, Old French orer and Romanian ura (“to wish (someone) well”).^[6]

De Vaan finds from the order of the Latin records that the first sense was “to plead, to speak openly”, and he takes the verb as derived from ōs (“mouth”).^[7] He rejects the alternative supported by the LIV, a root Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- “to speak solemnly” shared with Oscan, for which he finds the evidence outside Italic very weak.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The testament of King Afonso II, of 1214, has mando que orem por mi “I order that they pray for me”.^[5] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a pilgrim comes to pray before the image (ant' a omagen orar), and the Virgin is she que por nos ora “who prays for us”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval language the verb meant “to pray” and, with an object, “to beg, implore”, a use found in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and in the cantigas d'amigo.^[5][8] Bluteau (1712–1728) adds the rhetorical sense “to speak with the art of rhetoric”, beside the religious one, and quotes the proverb Quem bem ora, por si ora “whoever prays well, prays for himself”.^[9] Vieira (1871–1874) puts “to deliver a speech, harangue” first.^[10] Modern dictionaries keep both lines of meaning, praying and public speaking.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1214 – orem in the testament of Afonso II.^[5]
• 1300s – the forms horando and oraua.^[2]
• c. 1430 – orar in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[12]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders orar by Latin oro.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the senses “to pray” and “to speak with rhetorical art”.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais gives the senses “to ask, beg” and “to speak in public”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To pray.^[2][15][1] (transitive) to say (a prayer): Ela orava todas as noites pela família.^[2][15][1]
2. To ask humbly and insistently; to implore, beseech.^[2][16]
3. To speak in public, deliver a speech; to speak in an oratorical tone.^[2][11][17]

Related words

• oração
• orador
• oratório
• adorar
• Latin ōs

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. orar
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. oração
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. orar
5. ^ 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. orar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. orare
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. orar
9. ^ 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. orar
10. ^ 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, 566
11. ^ a b 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. orar
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. orar
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. orar
14. ^ 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, 136
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. orar
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6718
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. orar