pedir

Forms

pedir (first-person singular present peço, first-person singular preterite pedi, past participle pedido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote pedir and pidir, with forms such as pidia (13th century), pidijr, pediou and pedirrom (15th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *petīre (“to ask”), a remaking of Latin petō (“to make for; to seek, ask”), and was written Old Galician-Portuguese pedir and Old Galician-Portuguese pidir in the oldest texts.^[2][4][3][1] Nascentes and Nunes explain the change of conjugation by the Latin perfect and supine with long -ī-.^[5][6] Carolina Michaëlis derived the present ⟨peço⟩ from a form ⟨*petio⟩ made on the model of ⟨meço⟩ “I measure”.^[3]

The same Latin verb is Galician pedir, Spanish pedir, Asturian pidir, Sardinian pedire and Romanian peți (“to court a girl”).^[7][1] Corominas notes that it survived only in Spanish, Portuguese, Sardinian, the dialects of southern Italy and Romanian, and was replaced elsewhere, also in Catalan, by the descendants of dēmandō.^[8]

Wiktionary derives the Latin verb from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂eti (“to fly”), with a shift from “fly towards” to “try to reach”.^[1] The OLD gives a root “fly” or “fall” and compares Ancient Greek πέτομαι (pétomai, “I fly”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1077 already has the Romance form pediades “you asked” (de illo que a nobis pediades).^[3] Houaiss's first date, 1152, comes from Machado's files.^[2] In Galician-Portuguese the verb is recorded from the 13th century, when the cantigas of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda have peço and pedi.^[4][3] The Crónica Troiana uses it for begging a favour, in rrougoulle et pediolle por merçee “he begged him and asked him for mercy”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The medieval verb meant to ask, beg, request or demand, and used without an object, to beg for alms.^[10] A document of 1328 has pera custas pidir “to claim costs”, and the Crónica Geral enviou pidir cruzada “sent to ask for a crusade”.^[3] Barbosa (1611) has pedir as dividas “to demand one's debts”, beside the plain sense “to ask”.^[11] Morais (1789) defines it as asking for something to be given or done freely or as a due, and adds pedir por alguém “to plead for someone”.^[12]

Modern Portuguese adds the senses “to ask a price”, “to call for, require” and “to ask for a woman's hand”.^[2] Cunha dates the derivatives pedido and pedidor to the 13th century and pedinte “beggar” to the 15th.^[4] The verb passed into Kabuverdianu as pidi.^[1]

Timeline

• 1077 – a Latin charter has the Romance pediades.^[3]
• 1152 – Houaiss's first date, from Machado.^[2]
• 13th century – peço and pedi in the cantigas, and first records of pedido and petição.^[3][4]
• 1328 – pidir in a notarial document.^[3]
• c. 1450 – the Livro das tres vertudes (witness after 1450) is the first CTA text with pedir.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists pedir as dividas.^[11]
• 1734 – Feijó gives the present péço, pédes, péde and rejects pido and pida.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais's dictionary.^[12]
• 1813 – first records of pedinchar and pedinchão.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To ask someone to give or grant something; to request: Pediu ao vizinho uma escada emprestada.^[2][15][1]
2. To ask insistently; to beg, implore: pedir perdão.^[2][16]
3. To claim as a right; to demand.^[2][17]
4. To ask a price; to charge: Quanto pede pela bicicleta?^[2][1][18]
5. To need, call for, require: Esta planta pede muita luz.^[2][15]
6. To order a product or service.^[1]
7. To ask for in marriage: pedir a mão de.^[2][18]
8. (with por) To intercede for someone.^[2][16]
9. (intransitive) To beg for alms; to pray.^[18][17]

Word family

• pedido
• pedidor
• pedimento
• pedinchão
• pedinchar
• pedinte

Related words

• petição
• peticionar
• petitório
• Latin petō
• Spanish pedir

Usage notes

The present is irregular, peço, pedes, pede;^[14][1] Feijó (1734) already warned against the forms pido and pida.^[14][1] Wikcionário records a regional sense “to ask a question”.^[19]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pedir
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. pedir
4. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pedir
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pedir
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 387
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6444
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 457
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. petō
10. ^ 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. pedir
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pedir
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, 175
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. pedir
14. ^ a b c Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pedir
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pedir
16. ^ a b 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. pedir
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pedir
18. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7006
19. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. pedir