par

Forms

par m (plural pares)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pār (“equal, (as a noun) companion, mate”), written Old Galician-Portuguese par in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin adjective was already used as a noun for the male or female of a couple.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician par, Spanish par, Catalan par, French pair and Italian pari.^[4][1]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear: the traditional comparison with Proto-Indo-European *perh₂- (“to exchange, sell”) accounts badly for its vowel, de Vaan suggests *peh₂s-, which would link it to pāreō (“to appear; to obey”), and others give no Indo-European root.^[1] The DHLF calls it obscure.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates both the adjective “equal, like” and the noun “a set of two” to the 13th century;^[3][2] Houaiss dates the noun to the 13th and the adjective to the 14th.^[3][2] In the cantigas the adjective is frequent in the sense “equal, match”, above all in phrases such as nom haver par “to have no equal”: Pero Garcia Burgalês writes A esta coita nunca eu par vi “I never saw the like of this grief”.^[6][7] The Cancioneiro da Ajuda also has a par de “close to” and par a par.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Nascentes notes that the adjective “equal” grew old-fashioned and gave way to its derivative parelho, staying alive in the sense “divisible by two”.^[8] That sense is in the early dictionaries: Barbosa (1611) has the game par, e nones “odd or even”, Pereira (1697) glosses par as Latin numerus par, and Bluteau gives it as a term of arithmetic beside the noun for two things that go together, hum par de luvas.^[9][10][11] The noun also named the great vassals of a king and an equal in rank, and later a member of the House of Lords or of Portugal's former upper chamber.^[2][12] In the dance it is one's partner, and figuratively um par de means “a few”.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records of the noun and the adjective.^[3]
• c. 1400 – a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum (witness 1380–1425) uses par.^[13]
• 15th century – first record of páreo.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists par with Latin par.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa records the game par, e nones.^[9]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses the word as “even number”.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives the noun “pair” and the arithmetical sense.^[11]
• 1813 – first record of ímpar.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pair: two things or beings of the same kind taken together: um par de botas velhas.^[2][1]
2. A couple: two people joined by affection, interest or work; husband and wife.^[2][15]
3. A dancing partner.^[2][15]
4. An equal in rank or standing; a peer.^[2][1]
5. (historical) One of the great vassals of a king; a member of the House of Lords or of Portugal's former upper chamber.^[2][12]
6. (figurative) A few, a small indefinite number: um par de dias.^[2]
7. (mathematics) An even number.^[2]
8. (golf) par.^[1]

Adjective

1. Equal, like, matching: um talento sem par.^[2][15]
2. (mathematics) even, divisible by two: os números pares.^[2][1]
3. Having an even place in a series: as casas pares da rua.^[2]
4. Arranged symmetrically: os rins são órgãos pares.^[2][15]

Word family

• páreo
• parear

Related words

• emparelhar
• parelha
• ímpar
• paridade
• parelho
• Latin pār
• Spanish par

Usage notes

Set phrases: a par “side by side; at the same time”, a par de “beside; compared with; informed of”, estar a par “to be informed”, ao par “(of a security or exchange rate) at face value”, de par em par “wide open”.^[2]

The old preposition par of oaths, par Deus “by God”, is a separate word: the glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda takes it from French, from Latin per.^[7][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. par
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. par
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6219
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pair
6. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. par
7. ^ a b c 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. par
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. par
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. par
10. ^ a b 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. par
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. par
12. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. par
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. par
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. par
15. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. par
16. ^ 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. par