ouvir

Forms

ouvir (first-person singular present ouço or oiço, first-person singular preterite ouvi, past participle ouvido)^[1] The 13th-century texts write oir, oyr and ouir;^[2][3] Houaiss also lists ouuirdes and oyu in the 13th century and ouvir and houujr in the 14th.^[2][3] The present is ouço, also oiço.^[4][1] Feijó (1734) warns against oivir and against the participle ouvisto for ouvido.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin audiō (“to hear”), first written Old Galician-Portuguese oir, Old Galician-Portuguese oyr and Old Galician-Portuguese ouir, later Old Galician-Portuguese ouvir.^[3][2][1] Nascentes explains the form: the Latin diphthong /au/ became /ow/, the /d/ was lost, and the /w/ then split into a semivowel and the consonant /v/.^[6][7] He reports that Carolina Michaëlis first took the medieval ⟨oir⟩ for an apparent Castilianism, but since it is the only form of the troubadour period she regarded it as a defective spelling of ⟨ouir⟩.^[7] A cantiga d'escarnho has ⟨ouviu⟩ and six times ⟨oíu⟩ in the same poem, which the DDGM takes as a sign that ⟨oir⟩, ⟨ouir⟩ and ⟨ouvir⟩ were confused.^[4]

The same Latin verb is Galician ouvir, Spanish oír, Catalan oir, Occitan ausir, French ouïr, Italian udire and Romanian auzi.^[1][8][9]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb from a compound of Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewis (“clearly, manifestly”) and a verb “to render”, so that it first meant “to make evident”; cognates of the first part are Hittite forms meaning “to see” and αἰσθάνομαι (aisthánomai, “to perceive”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the Virgin ben oyu a prayer, a man a missa oyu “heard Mass”, and of a deaf-mute it is said that he non falava nen oya “neither spoke nor heard”.^[4] The cantigas d'amigo use the verb for hearing and for ouvir dizer, hearing something told.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the sense “to listen to, grant (a request)” to the 14th century.^[3] The oydor of the 13th century, later ouvidor, was a royal judge who heard cases, and ouvidoria is recorded in 1582.^[2] Bluteau distinguishes ouvir from Latin auscultare, which also means to believe and obey.^[11] Morais (1789) adds ouvir de confissão, to hear someone's confession.^[12] In law the verb means to take a witness's statement, and colloquially vais ouvir! warns of a scolding to come.^[3][13]

The verb passed into the creoles as obi in Kabuverdianu and Guinea-Bissau Creole and uví in Kabuverdianu and Macanese.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – oyr in the Cantigas de Santa Maria; the forms ouuirdes and oyu.^[4][3]
• 13th century – oydor, the earliest form of ouvidor.^[2]
• 14th century – the spelling ouvir and the sense “to listen to”.^[3]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo uses ouvir.^[14]
• 1582 – first record of ouvidoria.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa translates it by Latin audio.^[15]
• 1734 – Feijó prescribes ouvir and ouvido.^[5]
• 1789 – Morais records ouvir de confissão.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hear, to perceive sounds or words with the ear: Ouves aquele cão a ladrar?^[3][16][1]
2. To listen to, pay attention to; to grant (a prayer).^[3][13][1]
3. To take into account, consider.^[3][1]
4. To heed, obey (advice or teachers).^[3][17]
5. (intransitive) To have the sense of hearing.^[3][18][1]
6. (law) To take the statement of (a witness); to examine.^[3][19]
7. (intransitive, colloquial) To be told off, be reprimanded.^[3][13][1]

Word family

• ouvido
• ouvidor
• ouvinte
• ouvidoria

Related words

• Latin audiō
• Spanish oír

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ouvir
3. ^ 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. ouvir
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. oir
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. ouvir
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ouvir
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 370
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. audire
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. audire
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ouvir
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. 2, 144
13. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6785
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ouvir
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ouvir
16. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ouvir
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ouvir
18. ^ 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. ouvir
19. ^ 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. ouvir