pertencer

Forms

pertencer (first-person singular present pertenço, first-person singular preterite pertenci, past participle pertencido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote perteecer, pertẽecer, perteeçer and perteesçer, with the vowel of the Latin -ine- kept as a double ee.^[2][3][4] The contracted pertencer is recorded beside them from the 13th century.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pertinēscō (“to come to belong”), an inchoative form of Latin pertineō (“to reach, extend to; to concern, belong”), and was written Old Galician-Portuguese pertẽecer in the oldest texts.^[3][2][5][1] The Vulgar Latin verb is unrecorded and reconstructed from the Ibero-Romance forms.^[3][6] The Portuguese Academy's dictionary and the Porto dictionary call it a frequentative form instead.^[7][8]

The same verb is Galician pertencer and Spanish pertenecer.^[9][1] Italian and French use the Latin verb with the prefix ad- and without the inchoative suffix: Italian appartenere and French appartenir.^[10]

The Latin verb is formed from per- (“through”) and teneō (“to hold”).^[1][11] De Vaan derives the simple verb from Proto-Indo-European *tn-eh₁- (“to hold”).^[12] In Portuguese the intervocalic /n/ of the Latin -tin- was lost, leaving the nasal double vowel of the old form, which later contracted to one vowel.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology of the medieval vocabulary quotes a charter of 1282, todallas couzas que a mĩ pertezẽ “all the things that belong to me”, and one of 1286 on a farm que pertençe aa mesa “which belongs to the table”.^[13] The first sense is thus ownership, as in Latin legal usage, where the verb meant “to belong to (a person)”.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

Already in the 13th century the verb also meant “to be fitting, be due”: the Cantigas de Santa Maria say the Virgin knows for each pain quant' y pertẽece “how much belongs to it”, and the Crónica Geral uses it for what is proper to a person.^[13] The Portuguese–Latin dictionaries of 1569 and 1611 translate it with pertineo and attineo.^[15][16] Morais (1813) gives two senses, “to be someone's” and “to relate to, concern”.^[17] The modern dictionaries add “to be part of”, “to be someone's duty or competence” and “to be due”.^[3][7][6] In a Portuguese dialect survey it also means “to be someone's turn or task”.^[18]

Timeline

• 1282 – pertezẽ “(they) belong” in a charter.^[13]
• 1286 – pertençe, with the contracted stem, in a charter.^[13]
• 1287 – the infinitive perteeçer.^[13]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria have pertẽece.^[13]
• 14th century – perteesçer.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has Pertencer.^[15]
• 1813 – Morais defines it as “to be someone's” and “to refer to, concern”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (with a) To belong to, be the property of: Esta casa pertence aos meus avós.^[3][6][1]
2. (with a) To be part of, be a member of: Ele pertence a um clube de xadrez.^[3][7][1]
3. (mathematics) To be an element of a set.^[1]
4. (with a) To be the responsibility or competence of: A decisão pertence ao juiz.^[7][8]
5. (with a) To concern, relate to.^[3][7][8]
6. (with a) To be due to, be deserved by.^[7][8]

Word family

• pertença
• pertence
• pertencente

Related words

• pertinente
• ter
• Latin pertineō
• Spanish pertenecer

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 Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pertencer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pertencer
4. ^ 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. pertencer
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pertencer
6. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pertencer
7. ^ 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. pertencer
8. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7122
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *pertinescere
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 394
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pertineō
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. teneō
13. ^ a b c d e f g 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. perteecer
14. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. pertinere
15. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pertencer
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pertencer
17. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 440
18. ^ 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. pertencer