pôr

Forms

pôr (first-person singular present ponho, first-person singular preterite pus, past participle posto)^[1] The medieval infinitive was poer or põer.^[2][3] Houaiss records 13th-century forms such as põ, pon, ponnades, porrei and pos, and 14th-century ones such as poño, pugj and puynha.^[4] Wiktionary lists poer, ponhar, por and pòr as other forms.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pōnō (“to put, place”), written Old Galician-Portuguese poer, also with a tilde, in the oldest texts.^[4][1][2] The Latin verb of the third conjugation passed to the verbs in -er, the /n/ between vowels fell leaving a nasal vowel, and the two vowels in hiatus were then contracted.^[2][3]

The same Latin verb is Galician pór, Spanish poner, Italian porre and Romanian pune.^[5][1] French pondre and Catalan pondre kept only the rural sense “to lay eggs”, the general sense being expressed in those languages by other verbs.^[5][6]

The Latin verb is a compound of po- (“away, off”) and sinō (“to put down, let”), from Proto-Italic *pozinō.^[7][1][8] De Vaan explains that once the link with the simple verb was lost, a new perfect was made to the participle, replacing the old one.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A charter of 1258–1261 has outrossi mandey eenla poer meu seelo “I also ordered my seal to be put on it”, and one of 1275 et eu confirmo et pogno meu nome “and I confirm it and put my name to it”.^[3] The first sense is thus “to put, place”;^[4] Houaiss adds that the medieval index records 13th-century senses lost since, “to agree”, “to establish, fix” and “to carry out”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana already uses the verb for putting on a helmet, for stationing soldiers, for spending time (poseron sete meses ẽno camjño “they spent seven months on the road”), for fixing a day, and in the pronominal form for the setting of the sun (o ssol era ja posto).^[3] The cantigas d'escarnho use it for “to prove”, “to lay down” and “to compare”.^[3] Houaiss dates the senses “to assert” and “to make (someone) become” to the 14th century.^[4]

Feijó (1734) gives the conjugation ponho, pões, põe, pômos, pondes, põem and the preterite pûs, puseste, pôs, and rejects spelling the preterite with z because the Latin perfect is posui.^[9] The verb also means “to lay eggs”, and the infinitive is used as a noun in pôr do sol “sunset”.^[1][10]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, with forms such as põ, pon and porrei.^[4]
• 1258–1261 – poer meu seelo in a charter.^[3]
• 1275 – pogno meu nome in a charter.^[3]
• 1365 – the form poron.^[4]
• 14th century – first record of the senses “to assert” and “to make (someone) become”.^[4]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses pôr with Latin pono and colloco.^[11]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives pôr with its Latin equivalents and compounds.^[12]
• 1734 – Feijó sets out the conjugation and the spelling of the preterite.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put, place something somewhere: Pôs as chaves em cima da mesa.^[4][13][1]
2. To put on (clothes or shoes): Põe o casaco, que está frio.^[14][1]
3. To make (someone) be in a given state: A notícia pô-lo nervoso.^[4][1]
4. To give (a name); to lay (the blame) on someone.^[15]
5. To lay (eggs).^[1][10]
6. (pronominal) Of the sun or another heavenly body, to set.^[1][3]
7. (pronominal) To get into a position or state: pôr-se de pé.^[15][1]
8. To tell, describe in detail.^[4]

Word family

• pôr do sol
• posto

Related words

• antepor
• compor
• contrapor
• decompor
• depor
• dispor
• expor
• impor
• indispor
• interpor
• poente
• Latin pono
• Galician pór
• Spanish poner

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pôr
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. poer
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pôr
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6647
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pondre
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pono
8. ^ 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
9. ^ 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. pôr
10. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. pôr
11. ^ 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. pôr
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pôr
13. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pôr
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pôr
15. ^ 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. pôr