passar

Forms

passar (first-person singular present passo, first-person singular preterite passei, past participle passado)^[1] Houaiss records pasa in the 14th century and pasaçem, passe and pasou in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *passō (“to step, to pass”), a verb not found in Latin texts but reconstructed from the Romance languages, written Old Galician-Portuguese passar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Aurélio calls it Late Latin.^[4] It is formed from passus (“step, pace”), which in late use meant the spread of the legs, then the space between them, a step, and a measure of about a metre and a half.^[2][5] The Latin noun is formed from the participle of pandō (“to spread out”),^[6] which Wiktionary derives from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread”), the root of the English word fathom.^[1]

Nascentes saw the verb as a frequentative of the Latin verb rather than a derivative of the noun: it would first have meant “to open, give passage, let pass” and only later “to go through”, as Stappers proposed; he records that Adolfo Coelho derived it from passo and that Diez had rejected that view.^[7][8]

The same verb is Galician pasar, Spanish pasar, Catalan passar, Occitan passar, French passer and Italian passare.^[3][9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the earliest record to 1055–1065, after Machado.^[2] In the 13th-century troubadour songs the verb already means “to cross, go through” (time, many sorrows) and “to happen to someone”; in the cantigas d'amigo it also means “to take place” and “to neglect, fail to keep”.^[10] The Crónica Troiana has it for “to survive”: nunca coydaron passar nen escapar daquela tormenta “they never thought they would come through or escape that storm”.^[10] The glossary of Universo Cantigas lists further medieval senses: “to live through, suffer”, “to seem” and “to allow, tolerate”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the sense “to go beyond, overtake” and the pronominal passar-se “to happen” to the 13th century, and “to transmit” and “to die” to the 15th.^[2] Morais (1789) begins his long article with going from one place to another on foot, swimming, on horseback or by ship.^[12]

From “to make something go over or through” come the household senses “to strain, sieve”, “to iron” (passar a ferro) and “to dry” fruit; in Portugal the dialects also use it for drying figs and for hoeing the soil lightly.^[2][13] School use gave “to pass an examination” and “to move up a year”.^[1][14] With a and an infinitive it means “to begin to” do something habitually.^[1] In Rio Grande do Sul passar língua means to pass on news.^[15]

Timeline

• 1055–1065 – Houaiss's earliest date, from Machado.^[2]
• 1186 – Nascentes quotes a Latin legal text with passent super illos.^[7]
• 13th century – the troubadour songs use the verb for crossing and for happening; first dates of “to overtake” and of passar-se “to happen”.^[10][2]
• 14th century – the spelling pasa.^[2]
• c. 1400 – a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum (copied 1380–1425) has the verb.^[16]
• 15th century – first dates of the senses “to transmit” and “to die”.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it by Latin transeo.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais's article opens with travel on foot, swimming, on horseback or by ship.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go across, cross, traverse: Passámos a fronteira de madrugada.^[2][4][1]
2. To go beyond, leave behind; to overtake: O camião passou-nos na subida.^[2][1]
3. (intransitive) To go by, pass by: Ela passa por aqui todos os dias.^[2][1]
4. (intransitive) To call in briefly: Passo em tua casa logo à noite.^[1]
5. To carry or move across; to hand over: Passa-me o pão.^[2][1]
6. (sports) To pass (the ball).^[2][1]
7. To spread (something) over a surface: passar verniz na mesa.^[2]
8. To transmit, communicate (a message, an illness, a feeling).^[2]
9. (of time) To elapse; to come to an end: As férias passaram depressa.^[2][1]
10. To spend (time): Passaram a tarde a conversar.^[2][1]
11. (pronominal) To happen: O que se passa?^[2][1]
12. To go through, undergo: passar fome “to go hungry”.^[2][18]
13. To pass (an examination or a school year).^[1][14]
14. To iron (clothes).^[2][1]
15. To strain, sieve.^[2][18]
16. (auxiliary, with a and an infinitive) To start to: Passou a trabalhar de noite.^[1]
17. (intransitive) To be (in health): Como tem passado?^[2]
18. (intransitive) To die: passar desta para melhor.^[2]
19. (colloquial) To sell; to deal (drugs).^[2][19]

Word family

• passada
• passado
• passamento
• passatempo
• perpassar
• ultrapassar

Related words

• impasse
• passagem
• passarela
• passo
• Latin passus
• Galician pasar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v 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 y z Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. passar
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6267
4. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. passar
5. ^ 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. passar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. passus
7. ^ 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. 383
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. passar
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *passare
10. ^ 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. passar
11. ^ 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. passar
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, 166
13. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. passar
14. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. passar
15. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. passar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. passar
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. passar
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. passar
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6948