perceber

Forms

perceber (first-person singular present percebo, first-person singular preterite percebi, past participle percebido)^[1] Houaiss records the medieval forms percebudos (13th century), percebe and perçeban (14th century) and percebiees (15th century).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin percipiō (“to take hold of; to perceive”), written Old Galician-Portuguese perceber in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes and Aurélio give the Latin sense as "to seize, take possession of", Aurélio adding "to grasp with the senses".^[4][5] The Latin verb is formed from per- (“through, thoroughly”) and capiō (“to take, seize”); its first senses were to gather the produce of the land and to take full possession, from which came to perceive and to understand.^[6][7][1]

The same Latin verb is Romanian pricepe, French percevoir, Catalan percebre, Occitan percebre and Old Spanish percebir, modern percibir.^[8][9] Spanish has it from the late 12th century.^[10] The compound aperceber has parallels in Occitan, Catalan and Spanish.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 13th century, from the participle percebudos.^[2] In the cantigas d'escarnho it is "to notice" or "to guess": Fernan Rodriguez Redondo writes pera se lhi non poder perceber "so that it could not be noticed".^[11][12] Used reflexively it meant "to be on one's guard, ready", as in Johan Fernandez d'Ardeleiro's onde m' eu non percebia "when I was not ready".^[11]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) glosses it with Latin percipio, capio and sentio, and Bluteau defines it as "to understand, to reach with one's judgement", adding that it is said of the senses too.^[13][14] Morais (1789) puts "to receive" first, with the legal phrase perceber os frutos, as rendas, then "to understand".^[15] His 1813 edition adds an old sense "to warn, order to make ready".^[16]

Today the verb means to perceive through the senses, to notice and to understand;^[2][1] Wiktionary labels "to understand" as now chiefly European.^[2][1] The sense "to receive" survives for salaries and income.^[2][17]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, the participle percebudos.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the forms percebe and perçeban.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it with Latin percipio.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais gives "to receive" and "to understand".^[15]
• 1813 – Morais adds the old sense "to warn".^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To perceive, to become aware of through the senses; to see or hear clearly: Percebi o cheiro de queimado.^[2][5][1]
2. To understand, to grasp with the mind: Não percebi a pergunta.^[2][18][1]
3. To notice, to realise; to sense by intuition: Percebeu que ninguém o ouvia.^[2][5][1]
4. To receive, earn (a salary or income).^[2][17][1]
5. (archaic) To warn; to make ready.^[17][1]

Word family

• aperceber
• apercebimento
• desapercebido
• desperceber

Related words

• percepção
• perceptível
• perceptivo
• imperceptível
• Latin percipiō
• Spanish percibir

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. perceber
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. perceber
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. perceber
5. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. perceber
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. percipiō
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. percipio
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6399
9. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. percibir
10. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. percibir
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. perceber
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. perceber
13. ^ 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. perceber
14. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. perceber
15. ^ 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, 185
16. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 430
17. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. perceber
18. ^ 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. perceber