prender

Forms

prender (first-person singular present prendo, first-person singular preterite prendi, past participle prendido, short past participle preso)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had the strong preterite prix and the participle prês;^[2][3][4] prehender is recorded in the 14th century and preder in the 15th.^[2][3][4] Besides prendido the verb has the short past participle preso.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prendō (“to grasp, seize”), the contracted form of prehendō, with the same form in the oldest texts.^[2][5][1] De Vaan finds the contracted form from Terence on.^[6]

The same Latin verb is Spanish prender, Catalan pendre, French prendre and Italian prendere.^[7][8]

The Latin verb is formed from prae- (“before”) and a verb *hendō (“to take”) that is not found without a prefix.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *gʰ-n-d- (“to grab”), the root of Ancient Greek χανδάνω (khandánō, “to hold, contain”), and Wiktionary also compares the English word get.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda the verb has passed from its first sense, “to take, lay hold of”, to “to receive, accept, suffer”: prender affan “to suffer toil”, prender coita “to feel grief”, prender conselho “to take counsel”.^[3] The glossaries of the cantigas also record the senses “to capture” and “to take (someone) as one's lady”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates both the sense “to tie, fix” and the sense “to capture” to the 13th century, with by-forms in a- such as aprende.^[2] Barbosa (1611) defines it as laying hands on someone.^[9] Morais (1813) has “to put in prison, in irons”, “to tie”, “to hinder the use of the senses or limbs” and the fire that catches a building.^[10] The sense of fire spreading is still listed by Priberam, and in Rio Grande do Sul prender is also “to light a fire”.^[11][12] Figuratively it means to captivate or to become attached to someone.^[13][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records of prender.^[2][5]
• 13th century, second half – prender coita, prender conselho in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda.^[3]
• 14th century – prenderõ and prehender.^[2]
• c. 1431 – prender in the Vida do honrado Infante Josafat (witness 1431–1446).^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates prender as Latin comprehendo.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives Latin prehendo and its syncopated prendo.^[9]
• 1813 – Morais records the fire that prende a building.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tie, fasten, attach: prender o barco ao cais.^[2][16][1]
2. To hold, grasp with the hand.^[13][11]
3. To arrest, imprison; to capture.^[16][13][1]
4. To hinder, restrict (movement).^[16][11][1]
5. To captivate, hold (attention).^[16][13]
6. (intransitive) To take root; to stick, jam.^[11][13]
7. Of fire, to catch, spread.^[11]
8. (reflexive) To become attached (to someone or something).^[13][1]

Word family

• desprender
• prendedor
• preso

Related words

• aprender
• desprendimento
• empreender
• prendimento
• prisão
• repreender
• compreender
• Latin prehendō
• Spanish prender

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. prender
3. ^ 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. prender
4. ^ a b c 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. prender
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. prender
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. prehendō
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. prehendere
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 414
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. prender
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 492
11. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. prender
12. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. prender
13. ^ a b c d e f Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7438
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. prender
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. prender
16. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. prender