perdoar

Forms

perdoar (first-person singular present perdoo, first-person singular preterite perdoei, past participle perdoado)^[1] Houaiss records perdõass’ and perdon in the 13th century, perdoar and perdooe in the 14th and perdohou in the 15th.^[2] Dialect forms pordoar and purduar are recorded in Portugal.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin perdōnō (“to remit, forgive”), written Old Galician-Portuguese perdõar, with or without the tilde, in the oldest texts.^[2][1][4] Houaiss and the DLP call the Latin verb Late Latin, Cunha and Priberam Medieval Latin.^[2][5][6][7] It is formed from per- and dōnō (“to give”), so that it first meant giving something up entirely.^[5] The simple verb is a denominative of dōnum (“gift”).^[1] Nascentes notes that Brachet cited the verb from a text of the capitularies of Charles the Bald.^[8]

The same Latin verb is Galician perdoar, Spanish perdonar, Catalan perdonar, French pardonner and Italian perdonare.^[9][10][8] In Medieval Latin it meant to grant a favour or privilege, to spare a person's life, to remit a punishment, to give up a right or claim, and to pardon a misdeed.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo found the participle perdoado in a Galician text of 1271, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria write perdõar.^[10] In the satirical cantigas Afonso X speaks of whoever would grant leave de perdoar quẽ-no mal deostasse “to forgive the one who insulted him badly”.^[10] The sense was already the religious and moral one of today: the Miragres de Santiago pray God to forgive the sins of the faithful (por lles perdoar os pecados).^[10][2]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the first sense, “grant forgiveness”, to the 13th century, and “give up punishing; remit a debt or an offence” and “spare, hold back” to the 14th.^[2] Morais (1789) lists remitting a fault or a penalty, renouncing a right (perdoar a divida), spare, and the negative não perdoar “to spare no one”, with a passage in which a famine spared not even the dogs.^[12] Bluteau quotes the proverb Perdoar ao mao, he dizerlhe que o seja “to forgive the wicked is to tell him to stay so”.^[13]

Modern dictionaries add “tolerate a fault in someone” and, in the negative, “begrudge”, as when someone cannot forgive a rival's success.^[2][14] The imperative perdoe serves as a polite formula for interrupting or contradicting a speaker, and in familiar use não perdoa says that something is inevitable.^[5][15]

Timeline

• 1271 – the participle perdoado in a Galician text.^[10]
• 13th century – perdõar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and perdon in the satirical cantigas.^[10][2]
• 13th century – the noun perdon (perdão) and perdoança.^[6]
• 14th century – the senses “remit” and “spare”, and the noun perdoador.^[2][6]
• 1496 – perdoar in the História de mui nobre Vespasiano.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Perdoar with Latin parco.^[17]
• 1697 – Pereira adds ignosco and condono.^[18]
• 1755 – Folqman has perdoar a divida.^[19]
• 1789 – Morais gives the senses “remit”, “renounce a right” and “spare”.^[12]
• 1858 – first record of imperdoável.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To forgive, to pardon a person, a sin or an offence: Ela nunca lhe perdoou aquela traição.^[2][14][1]
2. To give up punishing;^[2][7][1] (law) to grant a pardon for a crime.^[2][7][1]
3. To remit a debt, to let someone off paying it.^[7][5][1]
4. To spare, hold back; in the negative, to spare nothing: Não perdoou gastos com a casa nova.^[2][14]
5. To put up with a fault in someone; in the negative, to begrudge: Nunca perdoou à irmã a beleza.^[2][5]
6. (reflexive) To forgive oneself; to spare oneself.^[2][20]
7. (imperative) A polite formula for interrupting someone: Perdoe, mas não foi isso que eu disse.^[5][15]

Word family

• imperdoável
• perdão
• perdoador
• perdoamento
• perdoança
• perdoável

Related words

• doar
• Latin dōnō
• Spanish perdonar

Usage notes

The verb takes either a direct object (perdoar a ofensa) or the person with a (perdoar ao filho), and both together (perdoar a ofensa ao amigo).^[2][20] Michaelis notes that a direct object of the person (perdoá-lo) is not recommended, but that classical writers, Camões among them, use it.^[21]

Deus lhe perdoe is said in pity of someone who erred, to a beggar one gives nothing, or of the dead.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. perdoar
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. perdonare
4. ^ 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. perdoar
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. perdoar
6. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. perdoar
7. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. perdoar
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. s.v. perdoar
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. perdonare
10. ^ a b c d e f 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. perdoar
11. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. perdonare
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, 186
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. perdoar
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. perdoar
15. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. perdoar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. perdoar
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. perdoar
18. ^ 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. perdoar
19. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. perdoar
20. ^ a b c 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. perdoar
21. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. perdoar