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parar

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word parar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin paro
Ultimate origin
Latin parō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin parō
Italian parare
French parade
English parade
Portuguese parar
Spanish parar
English pare
Derivations
From the same root
Latin apparō ← parō
Latin disparō ← parō
Latin imperō ← parō
Latin parābilis ← parō
Latin parātus ← parō
Latin praeparō ← parō
Latin reparō ← parō
Latin sēparō ← parō
Spanish parada ← parō

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /paˈɾa(ʁ)/, [paˈɾa(h)][1]
  • São-Paulo: /paˈɾa(ɾ)/[1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /paˈɾa(ʁ)/, [paˈɾa(χ)][1]
  • Caipira: /paˈɾa(ɻ)/[1]

Forms

parar (first-person singular present paro, first-person singular preterite parei, past participle parado)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin parō (“to prepare, provide”), written Old Galician-Portuguese parar in the oldest texts.[2][3][4][1] Houaiss glosses the Latin verb “to strive to obtain”, hence “to get, acquire, buy”.[2] Nascentes explains the sense “stop” by steps: from “prepare” to “put in such and such a state or position”, then “place”, then “halt”.[4] Corominas traces the same path in Spanish, where “to place oneself” became “to stop” by 1335.[5][6] Houaiss dates the sense “stop” to the 14th century for the pronominal verb.[2]

The same Latin word is Galician parar, Spanish parar, Catalan parar, French parer (“to adorn; to ward off”) and Italian parare (“to adorn; to parry”).[7][8][9]

De Vaan reconstructs *parāje/o- and Proto-Indo-European *prh₃-o- (“providing”); the Latin verb is the base of comparō, praeparō, sēparō and imperō.[10] Wiktionary connects it with *per- (“to produce, procure”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the earliest record to 1130, after Machado, and gives “to save, put by” (parar libras) as a 13th-century sense;[2][3] Cunha dates the verb in the sense “to stop” to the 13th century.[2][3] In the troubadour songs it means “to end up, turn out” and, in the cantigas d'amigo, parar-se ante alguém “to stand before someone”.[11] The Crónica Troiana uses the pronominal verb for “to stop”: me quero dela parar por uos non fazer noio “I will stop [telling] of it so as not to weary you”.[11] The cantigas also have parar mentes “to pay attention”.[12]

Semantic evolution

Several medieval senses have gone: “to dispose, present”, “to save”, and, in a royal inquiry of 1290, “to pay” rents.[2][13] In the 15th century it could mean “to offer, expose”, as Christ offered the other cheek.[2] Bluteau (1712) defines only “to stop, go no further”, and Morais (1789) adds “to end up somewhere”, as roads do.[14][15]

The older sense “to hold up against” survives in “to parry a blow” and in the compounds of para- such as para-raios and paraquedas, recorded from 1881, where the verb means “to ward off”.[2][3][8] “To stake at play” is another modern sense.[2] In Rio Grande do Sul parar means “to lodge” and occurs in expressions of ranch life such as parar rodeio “to round up cattle for counting”.[2][16]

Timeline

  • 1130 – Houaiss's earliest date, from Machado.[2]
  • 13th century – the senses “to save” and “to stop”; first record of parado.[2][3]
  • 1290 – the royal inquiries of King Dinis use pararom for paying rents.[13]
  • 14th century – first date of “to stop” for the pronominal verb.[2]
  • c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo uses the verb.[17]
  • 15th century – first record of anteparar.[3]
  • 16th century – first records of parada, paradeiro, paragem and deparar.[3]
  • 1712 – Bluteau defines “to stop, go no further”.[14]
  • 1881 – first records of paraquedas and para-raios.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive, also pronominal) To stop, cease moving: O comboio parou na ponte.[2][18][1]
  2. (intransitive) To stop doing something, cease;[2][1] parar de with an infinitive: Parou de nevar à noite.[2][1]
  3. (transitive) To bring to a stop: parar o carro.[2][1]
  4. (intransitive) To break a journey; to stop at a place.[2][1]
  5. (intransitive) To stay, remain somewhere: Com tanto trabalho, quase não para no escritório.[2][18]
  6. To end up (somewhere or in some state): A carta foi parar a outra morada.[2][1]
  7. To ward off, parry (a blow).[2][19]
  8. To stake (money) at play; to bet.[2][19]
  9. (Rio Grande do Sul) To find lodging.[2]
  10. (archaic) To dispose, present; to save, put by.[2]

Word family

  • anteparar
  • anteparo
  • deparar
  • parada
  • paradeiro
  • parado
  • paragem
  • paraquedas
  • para-choque
  • para-lama
  • para-raios
  • parável

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 s t u v w x Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. parar
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. parar
  4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. parar
  5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. parar
  6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 393
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ 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. 380
  9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. parare
  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. ^ 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. parar
  12. ^ 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. parar
  13. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 202
  14. ^ 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. parar
  15. ^ 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, 157
  16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. parar
  17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. parar
  18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. parar
  19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6902

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Parar.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/parar. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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