prometer

Forms

prometer (first-person singular present prometo, first-person singular preterite prometi, past participle prometido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese also had the metathesised pormeter (1344 pormetemos), and an old past participle prometudo.^[2][3] Houaiss records prometter and promity in the 15th century;^[2][4][1] prometter was still the spelling of the 19th-century dictionaries.^[2][4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prōmittō (“to send forth; to promise”), already written Old Galician-Portuguese prometer in the 13th century.^[2][5][6][1] The Latin verb is made of prō- (“forth”) and mittō (“to send”), and its first sense was “to send or throw forward, let grow”, from which came “to offer, put forward” and “to give one's word”.^[7][2][8] The medieval variant Old Galician-Portuguese pormeter has the r moved, and García de Diego records it in Galician.^[2][3][9]

The same Latin verb is Spanish prometer, Catalan prometre, French promettre and Italian promettere.^[10][1] The DHLF considers the French word an early borrowing from Latin, reshaped after French mettre.^[11] The Latin base verb probably goes back to *meitō and *meyth₂- (“to exchange, remove”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology gives a document of 1261, et prometendóó a mostrar e a prouar “and promising to show and prove it”, and one of 1266, prometo que nunca... seyan enbargadas “I promise that they shall never be impeded”.^[3] The Cantigas de Santa Maria tell how the Virgin took the ox that a villager of Segovia ll'avia prometudo “had promised her”.^[3] The sense is “to give one's word, vow”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use the verb for vows as well as promises: in the Cantigas someone prometera por en romaria yr “had promised to go on pilgrimage for it”.^[3] Barbosa (1611) has prometimento de casamento “promise of marriage”.^[12] The sense “to foretell, augur”, with a thing as subject, is in the 16th-century poetry Vieira quotes, where the stars and planets prometiam disaster to a ship.^[4] The original Caldas Aulete has “to give hope of, be likely to”, and Houaiss the intransitive “to show promise”.^[13][2]

The set phrase prometer mundos e fundos means to make extravagant promises.^[14] The DLP records the informal prometer “to threaten to hit someone”.^[15]

Timeline

• 1261 – prometendóó in a document.^[3]
• 1266 – prometo in a Galician document.^[3]
• 13th century – the form prometerõ.^[2]
• 1344 – the metathesised pormetemos.^[2]
• c. 1450 – prometer in the Livro das tres vertudes (copy after 1450).^[16]
• 15th century – the spellings prometter and promity.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates prometer as Latin polliceor.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists prometimento de casamento.^[12]
• 1755 – Folqman gives Latin promittere, polliceri and spondere.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. To promise, commit oneself in speech or writing to do or give something: Prometeu escrever todas as semanas.^[2][8][1]
2. To promise to give (something to someone).^[2][8]
3. To assert or assure beforehand.^[2][19]
4. To announce by signs, foretell, augur: O céu promete trovoada.^[2][14][1]
5. (intransitive) To show promise, give signs of future success.^[2][1]
6. (informal) To threaten to hit someone.^[15]

Word family

• prometedor
• prometido
• prometimento

Related words

• meter
• promessa
• promesseiro
• promissor
• promissória
• promissório
• promitente
• comprometer
• Latin prōmittō

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 l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. prometer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. prometer
4. ^ a b c 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, 969
5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. prometer
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. prometer
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. prōmittō
8. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. prometer
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. promittere
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6775
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. promettre
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. prometer
13. ^ 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. prometer
14. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7517
15. ^ 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. prometer
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. prometer
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. prometer
18. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. prometer
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. prometer