possuir

Forms

possuir (first-person singular present possuo, first-person singular preterite possuí, past participle possuído)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had many forms: pesoir, pussuyr, pusuir, pessoyr, possoir.^[2][3] The charters of the 13th century have possuiades, possoyades, pesuyades, pessuyades and pisuades.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin possideō (“to have, hold, own”), moved to the conjugation of verbs in -ir.^[3][5][1] Nascentes and Aurélio start from a Vulgar Latin *possidiō, through the forms Old Galician-Portuguese posseir, Old Galician-Portuguese pessoir (still used in his time in popular speech) and Old Galician-Portuguese possoir.^[6][7] Otoniel Mota, quoted by Nascentes, holds that the first of these became the second by metathesis, and that the modern form was later remade on the Latin type and the other Romance forms.^[5] Houaiss derives the word from possīdō (“to take possession of”), a compound of potis (“master”) and sīdō (“to settle”).^[2] The Oxford Latin Dictionary notes that the two Latin verbs share their perfect stem and are hard to tell apart there.^[8]

The same Latin verb is Galician posuír, Spanish poseer, Catalan posseir, Occitan possedir and Old French posseoir.^[9][1] The Latin verb itself is formed from the same first element, “able”, and sedeō (“to sit”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in charters granting land: in 1260 agades et pisuades jur d' erdade “may you have and possess them by right of inheritance”, and in 1270 que a aiades et que a possuiades.^[4] From the start the verb is used of holding land and property.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense “to hold as one's property” is the oldest, and Cardoso (1569) and Pereira (1697) translate the verb with Latin possideo, occupo and teneo.^[4][10][11] From owning, the verb came to mean having a quality or containing something, and figuratively the hold of a feeling over a person.^[2][12] It also means to have sexual relations with someone, and in religion, of a spirit or a deity, to take hold of a person.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1260 – pisuades in a charter.^[4]
• 1270 – possuiades, and in 1271 possoyades.^[4]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo uses the verb.^[13]
• 15th century – Houaiss's first record of the form possuir.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has possuir.^[10]
• 1697 – Pereira translates it as possideo, occupo, teneo.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To own, to have as one's property: possuir dois apartamentos.^[2][14][1]
2. (transitive) To have as a quality or feature; to be endowed with.^[2][12][1]
3. (transitive) To contain, to hold within.^[2][15]
4. (transitive) To hold sway over a country or region.^[15][16]
5. (transitive, also pronominal) Of a feeling, to overwhelm; to be taken over by a feeling.^[2][1]
6. (transitive) To have sexual relations with.^[2][16]
7. (transitive, religion) Of a spirit or deity, to possess a person.^[2][1]

Word family

• possuidor
• possuído

Related words

• possessão
• possessivo
• possesso
• possessor
• posse
• Latin possideo
• Spanish poseer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. possuir
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. possuir
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. possuir
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. possuir
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. possuir
7. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. possuir
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. possideō
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6683
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. possuir
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. possuir
12. ^ 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. possuir
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. possuir
14. ^ 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. possuir
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. possuir
16. ^ 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. possuir