pescar

Forms

pescar (first-person singular present pesco, first-person singular preterite pesquei, past participle pescado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin piscor (“to fish”), written Old Galician-Portuguese pescar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Houaiss and Porto Editora derive it from an active form of spoken Latin, *piscō, which replaced the deponent verb.^[2][4]

The same Latin word is Galician pescar, Spanish pescar, Catalan pescar, Italian pescare and French pêcher.^[5][1] The Latin verb is formed from piscis (“fish”), which goes back to *piskis and Proto-Indo-European *pisk- (“fish”); 𐍆𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍃 (fisks) and fisċ are cognates.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][3] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have a man estand' un dia pescando “being out fishing one day”, and tell how Jesus made Saint Peter catch a fish.^[7] A cantiga of mockery uses the infinitive as a noun, pelo teu pescar “by your fishing”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 already quotes the Latin proverb about fishing in the air, “labouring in vain”.^[9] Morais records the figurative senses “to draw people in” and “to catch sight of something at a glance”.^[10] The 19th-century dictionaries add “to get by cunning”, “to find out (a secret)” and, in popular speech, “to understand, know about”.^[11][12] Brazilian informal use has pescar “to understand” and “to doze, nod off”, and in the north-east “to crib in an exam”.^[2][1][11]

The verb passed into the Portuguese-based creoles: piská in Kabuverdianu and piska in Guinea-Bissau Creole, Papiamentu and Annobonese.^[1]

Timeline

• 842 – Houaiss's earliest date for the derivative pescaria, in the Latin spelling piscaria, after Machado.^[13]
• 13th century – first records of pescar, pescador and pescaria.^[2][3]
• 13th century – pescando in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[7]
• 1513 – pescar in the Livro dos Mártires.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary translates it by Latin piscor.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa quotes the proverb piscari in aere.^[9]
• 1813 – Morais records the sense “to catch sight of”.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To catch (fish) in the water: Pescaram três robalos.^[2][16][1]
2. (intransitive) To go fishing, fish as a sport or trade.^[2][17]
3. (transitive) To take something out of the water as one takes fish: pescar pérolas.^[2][18][1]
4. (transitive) To get, often by cunning; to find out, pick up (a secret, a conversation).^[2][11]
5. (transitive) To search for, look for.^[2][1]
6. (transitive) To see at a glance.^[19][4]
7. (informal) To understand; to know something about: Não pesco nada de química.^[2][19][1]
8. (Brazil, informal) To doze, nod off.^[1][17]
9. (north-eastern Brazil, slang) To crib, cheat in an exam.^[11]

Word family

• pesca
• pescada
• pescado
• pescador
• pescanço
• pescaria
• pesqueiro
• pesca-siri

Related words

• peixe
• Latin piscis
• Galician pescar

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include pescar em águas turvas “to fish in troubled waters”, to profit from confusion, and pescar da poda “to know a subject well”.^[19][4] The proverb não se pescam trutas a bragas enxutas says that no gain comes without work.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pescar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pescar
4. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7130
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6526
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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. pescar
8. ^ 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. pescar
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pescar
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 442
11. ^ a b c d 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. pescar
12. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. pescar
13. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pescaria
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. pescar
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pescar
16. ^ 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. pescar
17. ^ a b 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. pescar
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pescar
19. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pescar