pular

Forms

pular (first-person singular present pulo, first-person singular preterite pulei, past participle pulado)^[1] Houaiss records pular and pullando in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pullō (“to sprout, put forth shoots”), recorded from the 15th century.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from pullus (“young of an animal”).^[2][5] The sense changed from “sprout” to “jump”, Nascentes explains, because a shoot leaps out of the ground.^[4][2] Houaiss cites this explanation.^[4][2] The REW gives the Portuguese senses “shoot up, hop, jump”, beside Italian pollare (“to sprout; to well up”).^[6] Galician pular has the same origin.^[1]

Wiktionary calls the origin of the Latin noun disputed; one proposal is Proto-Indo-European *polH-on- (“offspring, young”), with Ancient Greek πῶλος (pôlos, “foal”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first records to the 15th century, from Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The oldest dictionaries still show the botanical sense: Cardoso (1569) renders pular with Latin pullulo “to sprout”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) gives pular as “to jump”, and also pular as ervas, ou arvores “of plants and trees, to grow”.^[8] Bluteau quotes Rodrigues Lobo's Corte na Aldeia for a ball that comes pular aos pés “bouncing to the feet”, and gives pular o coração “the heart leaps”.^[9] Morais (1789) still has “to grow very fast” of a boy or of plants, and, figuratively, “to prosper fast in wealth and office”.^[10]

Modern senses include “to skip” (a line or a part of a text), “to rise fast” (of prices) and, in Brazil, “to dance with gusto”, as in pular o carnaval.^[2][11][1]

Timeline

• 1400s – first records, as pular and pullando.^[2]
• 1500s – Cunha's date for pular and pulo.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders pular with Latin pullulo “to sprout”.^[7]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives both “to jump” and “to grow”.^[8]
• 1789 – Morais records “to grow very fast” and “to prosper”.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To grow quickly; to sprout, thrive.^[2][11]
2. (intransitive) To spring off the ground with a push of the legs; to jump (saltar), hop: As crianças pulavam no pátio.^{[2][11][12][1]}
3. (transitive) To jump over something: pular uma vala.^[2][13]
4. (figurative) To rise quickly in rank; of prices and figures, to go up fast: O preço do pão pulou para dois euros.^[2][11]
5. To get up quickly: pular da cama.^[2][11]
6. (transitive or intransitive) To dance (dançar) with gusto: pular o carnaval.^[2][1]
7. To keep changing (house, job, course).^[2]
8. (transitive) To leave out, skip (omitir): pular uma página.^[2][13]
9. To leap down from a height; to get off a vehicle.^[2][13]
10. Of the heart: to beat hard; of a person, to show great joy: pular de entusiasmo.^[2][11]
11. (Brazil, obsolete) To play capoeira.^[2][11]

Word family

• pulo
• pulada

Related words

• pulular
• saltar
• Latin pullō

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 n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pular
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pular
4. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pular
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. pullare
7. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pular
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pular
9. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pular
10. ^ 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, 263
11. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pular
12. ^ 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. pular
13. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pular