por

Forms

Houaiss records por and par in the 13th century.^[2] The medieval language also had a separate preposition per, from Latin per, which later merged with por.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin pōr, written Old Galician-Portuguese por in the oldest texts.^[2][1] This is Latin prō (“in front of, for”), with the order of the consonant and vowel changed under the influence of per (“through”).^[1][5][6] Nascentes cites the changed form from a Latin inscription (CIL III 3493).^[5] Meyer-Lübke judged Rajna's derivation from propter unlikely.^[6] Cornu instead derived the word from the Latin word for “through”, with the vowel rounded by the labial, and Grandgent supposed a Latin form that replaced both prepositions in Spain and northern Gaul.^[7] Silva Bastos and the Portuguese Wiktionary derive it from both Latin words.^[8][9]

The medieval language still kept it apart from Old Galician-Portuguese per “through, by”, though the manuscripts often confuse the two.^[4] It later took over the roles of that preposition, and Vieira notes that some classical authors still distinguished them.^[1][3] The same Latin word is Spanish por and French pour, and its compound with a, Old Spanish pora and Old Galician-Portuguese pora, became Spanish para and para.^[6]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *prō and Proto-Indo-European *pró (“toward, in front of”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century from the slips of Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda it means “in favour of” and “because of”, marks the agent, the aim and the cause, and is the usual preposition of oaths (por Deus).^[4] The Crónica Troiana also uses it for purpose: por seer o amor mais firmado “so that the love might be firmer”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

As per fell out of use, por gathered the senses of passage through a place, means and agent to its own of cause, exchange and favour.^[1][3] Pereira (1697) glosses it with Latin pro.^[11] Vieira (1871–1874) lists cause, a span of time, substitution, the agent and the place through which one goes.^[3] Houaiss lists thirty senses, among them price, distribution (por hora), multiplication and division, and the agent of the passive; the compound por que is recorded for questions from the 13th century and for clauses of purpose from the 14th.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – por and par.^[2]
• 13th century – por que introduces questions.^[2]
• 14th century – por que introduces clauses of purpose.^[2]
• c. 1350 – por in the Trasladação de S. Nicolau, its first text in the CTA corpus.^[12]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro glosses it with Latin pro.^[11]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira notes that it was formerly distinguished from per.^[3]

Meanings

Preposition

1. through, along, across: Entrou pela porta da cozinha.^[2][1]
2. Near, around, somewhere in (a place): Ela mora por aqui.^[2]
3. because of, out of: Fez isso por vergonha.^[2][1]
4. by, by means of: Enviou a carta por correio.^[2][1]
5. For, during (a span of time): Esteve fora por dois anos.^[2]
6. Per, for each: Ganha vinte euros por hora.^[2]
7. For, in exchange for, at the price of: Comprou a bicicleta por cem reais.^[2][1]
8. For, on behalf of, in favour of: Lutou pela liberdade.^[2][1]
9. As, for (considering someone as): Tinham-no por sábio.^[2]
10. By, marking the agent of a passive verb: O livro foi escrito por uma jovem autora.^[2][1]
11. (arithmetic) times, by: dividir por três.^[2]
12. Still to be done: Tenho cartas por responder.^[2]

Word family

• porque
• porquê

Related words

• Latin prō
• Latin per
• Spanish por

Usage notes

Before the spelling reforms por was also written for the verb pôr “to put”: Cardoso (1569) and Morais (1789) both enter the verb under por, and Wiktionary records it as an obsolete spelling of pôr.^[13][14][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. por
3. ^ a b c d e 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, 847
4. ^ a b c d 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. por
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. por
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6762
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 410
8. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. por
9. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. por
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. por
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. por
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. por
14. ^ 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, 218