puxar

Forms

puxar (first-person singular present puxo, first-person singular preterite puxei, past participle puxado)^[1] Houaiss records the spelling puchár in a dictionary of 1858.^[2] Feijó (1734) corrects pucho to puxo.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pulsō (“to push, strike”), written Old Galician-Portuguese puxar in the oldest texts.^[2][1][4][5] Its learned doublet is pulsar.^[2][1] Houaiss suggests that the -l- became the semivowel -i-, giving *puissar and then *puixar, and compares the old empuixar.^[2] Nascentes too passes through the second of these forms.^[6]

The same Latin verb is Galician puxar, Spanish pujar (“to push”), French pousser and Old Occitan polsar.^[7][1][8]

The Latin verb is a frequentative of pellō (“to drive, strike”), formed on the stem of its supine.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's earliest date, 1090, is the Latin verb form puxauerit in a Latin charter.^[2] In Galician-Portuguese texts of the 13th century the verb still means “to push”, like its Latin source: in the Cantigas de Santa Maria a devil “pushed her into the well” (un diaboo a puxou / dentro no poç).^[10][2] The Crónica Troiana uses it for driving the enemy back: puxarõnos ata o mar “they pushed them back to the sea”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

By the 16th century the verb had come to mean the opposite, “to pull”: Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary of 1569 glosses it with Latin vello “to pluck, pull”.^[11] Vieira (1871) defines it as “to pull at something”.^[12] The modern senses all grow out of pulling: to drag, to pull out, to draw a weapon, to stretch, to start a song or a chant, to bring on a subject, to take after one's parents (puxar ao pai), and to tend towards a colour.^[2][5][13]

Brazilian Portuguese adds “to carry (a load)”, “to flatter” (whence puxa-saco), “to steal (cars)” and “to smoke marijuana”.^[2][1] In Rio Grande do Sul puxar a ponta is to ride at the head of a herd, guiding its march.^[14]

Wiktionary lists the Dutch boegseren among the descendants of the verb, and through it German bugsieren and Russian буксир (buksír).^[1]

Timeline

• 1090 – puxauerit, a Latin verb form, in a Latin charter.^[2]
• 13th century – puxar “to push” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[10][2]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (witness of 1390–1437).^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin vello “to pull”.^[11]
• 1633 – first in the private letters of Post Scriptum.^[16]
• 1734 – Feijó's spelling rule puxo, not pucho.^[3]
• 1858 – the spelling puchár.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pull (something) towards oneself.^{[2][5][13][1]}
2. To drag or haul behind oneself: o trator puxava o reboque.^[2][5][1]
3. To pull hard at, to pull out or tear out: puxar um prego.^[2][17]
4. To draw (a weapon): puxar da faca.^[2][18][1]
5. To stretch tight.^[2][17]
6. To start and lead (a song, a chant, a dance).^[2]
7. To bring up (a subject); to call forth: palavra puxa palavra.^[2][18]
8. To take after (a parent or ancestor): a menina puxou à tia.^[2][1]
9. To tend towards (a colour, a calling).^[2][17]
10. To inhale (smoke).^[2]
11. (Brazil) To carry (a heavy load).^[2]
12. (Brazil, informal) To flatter (a superior) for advantage.^[2]
13. (Brazil, slang) To smoke marijuana.^[2][1]

Word family

• puxada
• puxado
• puxador
• puxão
• puxa-saco
• empuxar

Related words

• puxação
• pulsar
• Galician puxar
• Spanish pujar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 t u v w x Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. puxar
3. ^ a b 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. puxar
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. puxar
5. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. puxar
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. puxar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6837
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pulsare
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pulsō
10. ^ a b c 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. puxar
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. puxar
12. ^ 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, 1032
13. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. puxar
14. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. puxar
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. puxar
16. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. puxar
17. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7615
18. ^ a b 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. puxar