ousar

Forms

ousar (first-person singular present ouso, first-person singular preterite ousei, past participle ousado)^[1] Houaiss records oussam in the 14th century and ousarrom and houzaua in the 15th.^[2] The Crónica Troiana writes oussaua.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ausō (“to dare”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ousar in the oldest texts.^[2][4][5] The Vulgar Latin verb was formed on ausus, the past participle of audeō (“to dare”);^[4][6] Houaiss and Nascentes call it a frequentative.^[2][5] Wiktionary notes that a Late Latin form of the verb is found in a single manuscript, of a grammar attributed to Irish circles of the 7th century.^[1] A Latin charter of 1068 already uses its past participle.^[3]

The same Latin verb is Galician ousar, Spanish osar, Catalan gosar, Occitan ausar, French oser and Italian osare.^[7][8] The Spanish verb is recorded from the end of the 10th century.^[9]

That verb was derived from avidus (“greedy”), and first meant “to want very much”; the old polite formula sōdēs (“if you please”), from “if you want”, keeps that sense.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo dates the Portuguese verb to the 13th century.^[3] In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda it means “to dare” and takes an infinitive either directly or with a or de; the Crónica Troiana says of a fighter that nobody dared to await his blow (nehun nõno oussaua atender).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The construction with a before the infinitive was common in the cantigas d'amigo and has since been lost,^[3] though Bluteau still quotes ouso a dizer from 17th-century writers.^[11] Aurélio marks the use with an indirect object as obsolete.^[12] Beside “to dare”, the verb came to mean “to decide on” and “to attempt something new or difficult”.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 1068 – ausatus fuerit in a Latin charter.^[3]
• 1200s – first records, in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda.^[2][4][3]
• c. 1430 – ousar in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Ousar by Latin audeo.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau quotes ouso a dizer and naõ ousavaõ fazello.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dare; to have the courage to do something: Ninguém ousou responder ao chefe.^[2][12][1]
2. To decide on, to venture on: Não ousou pedir um aumento.^[2][12]
3. To attempt something unusual or difficult.^[2][12]

Word family

• ousado
• ousadia
• ousança

Related words

• audácia
• audaz
• Spanish osar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ousar
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ousar
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ousar
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ousar
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. ousar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 801
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *ausare
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. osar
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. audeō
11. ^ 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. ousar
12. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ousar
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ousar
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ousar