perecer

Forms

perecer (first-person singular present pereço, first-person singular preterite pereci, past participle perecido)^[1] Houaiss records perecer and pereçesse in the 13th century and perecido in the 14th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *periscō (“to perish”), an inchoative formed on pereō (“to perish”), according to Cunha, Nascentes, Aurélio and the DLP.^[3][4][5][6] Nascentes also allows that it is the older Old Galician-Portuguese perir with the inchoative suffix -ecer, and Wiktionary derives it from that verb.^[4][1] Houaiss suggests instead that it may come from Spanish, where Spanish perecer is recorded from 1220 as an inchoative of the old Old Spanish perir.^[2][7]

The other Romance languages mostly kept the simple verb: Italian perire, French périr, Catalan perir and Romanian pieri;^[8][9] Catalan also has the inchoative Catalan pereixer.^[8][9]

The Latin verb is formed from per- (“through”) and eō (“to go”).^[10] Corominas reads it as “to go badly, go to ruin”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria have farey-te perecer “I will make you perish” and cuidaron perecer todos e aly morrer “they all thought they would perish and die there”, and tell how the Virgin kept a ship laden with wheat que non pereçesse “from being lost”.^[11] Lorenzo uses these cantigas to antedate Machado's 14th-century date.^[11] A cantiga d'escarnho by D. Pedro de Portugal applies it to a tent that collapses for want of a good master: pereceo toda a tenda.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The medieval verb covers dying, being shipwrecked and falling to ruin.^[11] Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) render it by Latin pereo;^[13][14][15] Bluteau defines it as “to lose one's being, end one's life, suffer final destruction”.^[13][14][15] Today it means to die, especially a sudden or violent death, and to come to an end.^[2][16] In the Brazilian dialect survey of the TLPGP it is noted as a word chosen to avoid morrer when speaking of people.^[17]

Timeline

• 1220 – first record of Spanish perecer.^[2]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use perecer and pereçesse.^[11][2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders perecer by Latin pereo.^[18]
• 1836 – first record of imperecível, in Constâncio's dictionary.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira glosses it as “to end, die, pass away”.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To die, especially a premature or violent death: Três pescadores pereceram na tempestade.^[2][16][5]
2. To come to an end; to cease to exist: Com a crise, o negócio acabou por perecer.^[2][5][6]
3. To be destroyed or laid waste.^[5][20]

Word family

• imperecível
• deperecer

Related words

• perecível
• morrer
• Latin pereō
• Spanish perecer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. perecer
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. perecer
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. perecer
5. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. perecer
6. ^ a b 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. perecer
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. perecer
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6415
9. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *periscere
10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. pereo
11. ^ a b c d e 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. perecer
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. perecer
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. perecer
14. ^ 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. perecer
15. ^ 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. perecer
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. perecer
17. ^ 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. perecer
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. perecer
19. ^ 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, 757
20. ^ 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. perecer