portar

Forms

portar (first-person singular present porto, first-person singular preterite portei, past participle portado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin portō (“to carry”), written Old Galician-Portuguese portar in the medieval texts.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician portar, Spanish portar, Catalan portar, French porter, Italian portare and Romanian purta.^[5] Corominas considers the Spanish verb a foreign word, taken at different times from Latin, Catalan, French and Italian.^[6]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *porto/ā- and thinks the verb is probably formed from a noun meaning “passage, crossing”, Proto-Indo-European *port-o-, the source also of portus (“harbour”) and porta (“gate”).^[7][1] The OLD instead derives it from an unattested *poreō, related to Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐍂𐌾𐌰𐌽 (farjan), with the suffix -tō.^[8] Both go back to *per- (“to go through”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 14th century.^[2][3] In the satirical cantigas Afonso Lopez de Baian mocks a knight who wears neither a hauberk nor a light hauberk (nen porta loriga nen porta lorigon) and who bears his insignia on the front of the saddle (sinaes porta eno arçon d'avan).^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

A document of 1419 quoted by Viterbo uses portar for carrying wine by water to a landing-place.^[11] Houaiss dates the reflexive portar-se “to behave” to 1683, and Bluteau (1712–1728) explains it as haver-se, obrar.^[2][12] Vieira records the nautical portar pela amarra, of a ship pulling on its cable, and notaries used portar por fé “to certify”.^[13][14] It also came to mean “to wear (clothes)” and, in computing, “to port (a program)”.^[2][15]

The verb stem forms many compounds naming things that hold or carry something, such as porta-aviões “aircraft carrier” and porta-chaves “key ring”.^[1]

Timeline

• 1300s – first records, according to Houaiss and Cunha.^[2][3]
• 1419 – portado of wine carried by water, in a document quoted by Viterbo.^[11]
• 1683 – first record of portar-se “to behave”.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau explains portar-se.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais records portar-se bem and portar-se mal.^[16]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira records portar pela amarra.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To carry with one; to bear: Portava sempre uma lanterna.^[2][15][1]
2. To wear (clothes or an accessory).^[2][14]
3. (reflexive) To behave: Ela portou-se muito bem na entrevista.^[2][17][1]
4. (nautical) Of a cable, to be under full strain;^[2][15] portar pela amarra, of a ship, to pull on its cable.^[2][15]
5. (computing) To port a program to another platform.^[15]
6. (law) Portar por fé: to certify, attest.^[2]

Word family

• portador
• portante
• porte
• portável
• porta-aviões
• porta-bandeira
• porta-chaves
• porta-estandarte

Related words

• comportar
• transportar
• importar
• exportar
• porta
• porto
• Latin portō

Usage notes

Houaiss enters a second verb portar “to put into port, to arrive”, dated to the 13th century and now archaic, as an aphetic form of aportar; the DLP, Aurélio and Priberam derive it instead from porto with the suffix -ar.^{[2][4][15][17]} The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it of a ship sailing to put in at Acre (cuidand' en Acre portar).^[9]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. portar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. portar
4. ^ 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. portar
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6672
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. portar
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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. portar
10. ^ 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. portar
11. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 231
12. ^ 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. portar
13. ^ a b 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, 855
14. ^ a b 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. portar
15. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. portar
16. ^ 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, 221
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. portar