papar

Forms

papar (first-person singular present papo, first-person singular preterite papei, past participle papado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pappō (“to eat soft food”), written Old Galician-Portuguese papar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb was formed from pappa, the word children used to ask for food.^[2][5]

The same Latin verb is Spanish papar, Catalan papar, Old French paper, Italian pappare and Romanian păpa.^[6][7] Wiktionary calls its origin unclear: perhaps an imitative nursery word, perhaps from the root Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to feed”) of pāscō.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha and Houaiss date the verb to the 13th century.^[3][2] Lorenzo's chronology finds it in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (cantiga 139), where the Virgin asks a child queres papar? “do you want to eat?” and promises that he will eat with her in heaven, much earlier than the 16th-century record Morais had given.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb belonged to the speech of and to children: Bluteau says it is proper to children, who eat pap, and is said of food that needs little chewing, and Morais (1789) still defines it as “to eat”, said when speaking to children.^[9][10] The popular senses “to win”, “to extort” and “to have sex with” are in the old Caldas Aulete.^[11] In Portugal it can also mean to cover a distance or to swallow a story.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 13th century – queres papar? in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[8][3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin devoro.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa compares Plautus's pappo.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau calls it a children's word.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as “to eat”, said to children.^[10]
• 1881 – first records of paparicar and paparico.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (informal, childish) To eat: Vamos papar a sopa.^[2][16][1]
2. (informal) To get or win; to beat an opponent.^[2][17][1]
3. (informal) To get by dishonest means, to extort.^[2][16]
4. (Portugal, informal) To cover a distance; to believe something.^[12][13]
5. (vulgar) To have sex with.^[2][13][1]

Word family

• papão
• paparicar
• papa-anjo

Related words

• papa
• papo
• Latin pappō
• Spanish papar

Usage notes

Papar moscas “to catch flies” is to stand gaping at everything with indifference.^[12][18] In Brazil estar papando alto is to be involved in big deals or love affairs.^[2][16]

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 h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. papar
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. papar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. papar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6214
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pappare
8. ^ 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. papar
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. papar
10. ^ 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, 154
11. ^ 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. papar
12. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6872
13. ^ a b c 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. papar
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. papar
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. papar
16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. papar
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. papar
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. papar