pagar

Forms

pagar (first-person singular present pago, first-person singular preterite paguei, past participle pagado, short past participle pago)^[1] Houaiss records pagar and page in the 13th century and pagão and paguasem in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pācō (“to pacify”), which in the Latin of the people had come to mean “to appease with money, to pay”.^[2][3][1] Medieval Latin charters use the verb for satisfying a claimant or creditor and for paying a debt.^[4] The DHLF explains the Romance meaning by a late Latin moral sense “to satisfy, appease”;^[5][6] Nascentes puts it as “whoever pays calms the anger of the creditor”.^[5][6] The Latin verb is formed from pāx (“peace”).^[1][7] De Vaan derives that noun from Proto-Italic *pāk- (“agreement, peace”).^[8]

The same Latin word is Galician pagar, Spanish pagar, Catalan pagar, Occitan pagar, Italian pagare and French payer, while Romanian împăca keeps the sense “to reconcile”.^[9][7]

Bluteau in 1712 derived the word from pāgus (“village, country district”), through the rents paid on farmland, unlike the later dictionaries cited here.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][3] In the cantigas it often means “to satisfy, please”, and reflexively “to be pleased with”: tal senhor avedes / que non sei quen se dela non pagasse “you have such a lady that I know no one who would not be pleased with her” (to Pero d'Ambroa).^[11] The Cancioneiro da Ajuda also has the sense “to give the value of”, and the Crónica Troiana speaks of the rents que lle aujan a pagar “that they had to pay him”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “to please” was still alive in the reflexive pagar-se and in Old Portuguese pagado “content”.^[12][9] From the sense “to appease, quench” came apagar “to put out (a fire)”.^[13] Bluteau in 1712 defines pagar as “to satisfy the creditor”, and Vieira quotes the Ordenações Afonsinas for paying a fifth in tax.^[10][14]

Modern senses include “to pay for (a purchase)”, “to repay, return (a kindness or a wrong)” and “to suffer for, atone”.^[2][15] Brazilian colloquial Portuguese uses it for doing exercises as a punishment and, with de, for pretending to be something;^[1] Wiktionary also lists the set phrases pagar mico and pagar pato.^[1] The word passed into the languages of western India: Konkani and Marathi पगार (pagār), Gujarati પગાર (pagār).^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – pagar in the cantigas, often in the sense “to please”, the century to which Cunha dates the first record.^[3][11]
• 13th century – first records of paga and pagamento, the latter spelt pagameto.^[3][16]
• 1416 – first in the CTA corpus, in the Vida do Cativo Monge Confesso.^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it by Latin solvo.^[18]
• 1712 – Bluteau derives the word from Latin pagus.^[10]
• 1836 – pagável and impagável in Constâncio's dictionary.^[3]
• 1858 – first record of pagadoria.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pay (someone); to remunerate, reward: A empresa paga os empregados ao fim do mês.^[2][19][1]
2. To pay, settle (a debt, a tax, a bill).^[2][19][1]
3. To pay for (goods or a service): Quem paga o jantar?^[2][15][1]
4. To return, repay (a kindness or a wrong).^[2][19]
5. To suffer for, atone for: pagar pelo que fez.^[20] pagar caro, to suffer dearly for something.^[2][20]
6. (informal, intransitive) To suffer the consequences.^[1]
7. (Brazil) To do (exercises), especially as a punishment.^[1]
8. (Brazil, with de) To pretend to be, put on airs of.^[1]
9. pagar-se: to feel compensated (for a loss or effort).^[2]
10. pagar para ver: in poker, to call a bet, (figurative) to doubt that a threat will be carried out.^[2]

Word family

• paga
• pagador
• pagamento
• pagável
• impagável
• pagadoria
• apagar
• pagar mico
• pagar pato

Related words

• paz
• Latin pāx
• Spanish pagar

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 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. pagar
3. ^ 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. pagar
4. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. pacare
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. payer
6. ^ 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. 373
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 337
8. ^ 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 Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6132
10. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pagar
11. ^ a b 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. pagar
12. ^ a b 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. pagar
13. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. apagar
14. ^ 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, 626
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. pagar
16. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pagamento
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. pagar
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pagar
19. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pagar
20. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. pagar