povoar

Forms

povoar (first-person singular present povoo, first-person singular preterite povoei, past participle povoado)^[1] Houaiss records poblar and pobrou in the 13th century, poboar in the 14th, pavorar in 1449 and povoava and pouohou in the 15th.^[2] Cunha too dates poblar and pobrar to the 13th century.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese povoo + -ar, from the old form of povo, written Old Galician-Portuguese poboar in the 14th century.^[2][1] The 13th-century forms Old Galician-Portuguese poblar and Old Galician-Portuguese pobrar were made in the same way from Old Galician-Portuguese poblo and Old Galician-Portuguese pobro, other old forms of the noun, and were later displaced.^[2][1] Most modern dictionaries take it simply as a derivative of the noun.^[4][5][6]

Cunha derives it instead from Vulgar Latin *populō, from populus (“people”).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Pereira's Thesouro of 1697 renders it with Latin verbs meaning “to inhabit” and “to frequent”.^[7] Morais (1789) defines it as settling people in an empty land, and also as to found and inhabit a place, and he quotes os ladrões que povoam os cárceres “the thieves who fill the jails” and the animals that live in the woods.^[8] Vieira adds the sense “to fill”, as in filling the sea with ships.^[9] Today it is also used of stocking land or water with animals and plants, and figuratively of memories and ideas that fill the mind.^[2][5] In Rio Grande do Sul it is used for stocking a field with cattle.^[10]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, as poblar and pobrou.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the form poboar.^[2]
• 15th century – povoava.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it with Latin habito, incolo and frequento.^[7]
• 1734 – Feijó gives the present povôo, povóas, povôa.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais defines the verb and its transferred senses.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To settle people in an uninhabited place so that they live there; to colonize: Os primeiros colonos povoaram o vale do rio.^[2][5]
2. To inhabit, occupy (a place).^[5][6]
3. To stock (a place) with animals or plants so that they breed and spread: povoar o açude de tilápias.^[2][5][12]
4. To fill or crowd (a place); (reflexive) to fill up: Os turistas povoaram o largo.^[2][5]
5. (figurative) To fill the mind, as thoughts and memories do.^[2]
6. (reflexive) To become populated.^[12]

Word family

• povoado
• povoação
• povoador
• povoamento
• despovoar
• repovoar

Related words

• povo
• população
• popular
• Latin populus
• Spanish poblar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. povoar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. povoar
4. ^ 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. povoar
5. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. povoar
6. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7389
7. ^ 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. povoar
8. ^ a b 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, 226
9. ^ 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, 877
10. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. povoar
11. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. povoar
12. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. povoar