partir

Forms

partir (first-person singular present parto, first-person singular preterite parti, past participle partido)^[1] Houaiss records the old forms partysse (1365) and partii (14th century), and parteria in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin partiō (“to share, divide”), written Old Galician-Portuguese partir in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin verb is formed from pars (“part, piece”) and also had a deponent form partior.^[5][6]

The same Latin verb is Galician partir, Spanish partir, Catalan partir, French partir and Italian partire.^[7][1] De Vaan reconstructs *parti- (“part”).^[6] Schrijver explains it as a formation from the stem of pariō (“to bring forth”), first meaning “lot, portion”.^[6]

The sense “to leave, set off” grew out of the idea of separation in “to divide, break apart”, and Houaiss thinks it was probably taken from the French verb, which meant “to leave a place” from the 12th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][3] In the cantigas it means “to divide, share out” (assi partides migo quant'havedes, “so you share with me all you have”, Gil Peres Conde), but also “to separate, keep away” and partir-se de “to leave, part from someone”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The troubadours used several senses that are now gone: “to dissuade, prevent”, “to give up, cease from”, and partir do amor “to stop loving someone”.^[9][8][2] The Crónica Troiana uses it for sharing out the spoils.^[9] Viterbo glosses old partir as “to separate, remove”.^[10]

Bluteau's first sense is still “to divide into parts”, and Morais has partir o pão “to break the bread” and partir a briga “to break up a quarrel”.^[11][12] Today the word means both “to break, split” and “to leave, set off”, and also “to come from, start from”, as in a partir de “from, starting from”.^[2][13][1] Brazilian informal speech uses partir para for “to go for, attack” and “to resort to”.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, including the senses “to dissuade” and “to give up”.^[2][3]
• 1365 – the form partysse.^[2]
• c. 1430 – partir in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it first as “to divide into parts”.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais lists partir o pão and partir os mares.^[12]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira records the arithmetic sense “to divide” as obsolete.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and pronominal) To divide or split into parts or pieces: Partiu o bolo em oito fatias.^[2][16][1]
2. (transitive and pronominal) To break, smash; to fracture a bone: O copo partiu-se.^[2][13]
3. (transitive) To cut through, cleave: O barco partia as ondas.^[2][16]
4. (transitive) To share out, distribute (distribuir).^[2][13]
5. (intransitive and pronominal) To leave, set off, depart: O comboio parte às dez.^[2][13][1]
6. (intransitive) To start suddenly into motion.^[2][17]
7. (with de) To come from, originate in; to start from a premise.^[2][17][1]
8. (figurative) To break someone's heart.^[2]
9. (euphemistic) To die.^[2][1]
10. (Brazil, informal, with para) To go for, attack; to turn to a course of action.^[2][1]
11. To border on.^[2][17]

Word family

• despartir
• partida
• partimento
• repartir

Related words

• compartir
• parte
• partição
• partido
• partilha
• partilhar
• apartar
• Latin partiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. partir
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. partir
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. partir
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. pars
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6259
8. ^ a b 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. partir
9. ^ 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. partir
10. ^ 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, 203
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. partir
12. ^ 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, 163
13. ^ a b c d 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. partir
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. partir
15. ^ 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, 681
16. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. partir
17. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. partir