quadrar

Forms

quadrar (first-person singular present quadro, first-person singular preterite quadrei, past participle quadrado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin quadrō (“to make square; to fit”), a learned word according to Nascentes.^[2][3][1] Houaiss gives the Latin verb the senses “to square off, make square, make symmetrical or harmonious, suit, refer to”, and the OLD derives it from quadrum (“a square”).^[2][4] Wiktionary traces the Latin word through quadrus (“square”) to quattuor (“four”).^[1]

The same Latin verb is Italian quadrare, French carrer, Occitan cairar and Spanish cuadrar, and also Galician cadrar.^[5][1][6] The French verb is recorded from the end of the 12th century.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology finds the verb in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: e quadrava ben as pedras “and he squared the stones well”, and another cantiga speaks of large stones mui ben quadrados “very well squared”.^[8] Houaiss dates the first record to the 13th century from Cunha's medieval index.^[2] The first sense is the physical one, “to give a square shape to”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Viterbo's Elucidário records an old sense “to belong to”, which matches Medieval Latin quadrare “to be due, belong to a person”.^[9][10] Barbosa (1611) already glosses the verb with Latin cado and cohaereo, that is “to fit, agree”, beside the literal sense.^[11] Bluteau (1712) adds the squaring of beams and the geometrical sense of turning a figure into a square of equal area, with the problem of squaring the circle.^[12] Morais (1813) records the arithmetic sense, multiplying a number by itself, and the intransitive sense “to suit, be consistent, please”.^[13]

Modern technical senses include cutting cork into squares for stoppers, halting a horse so that it stands evenly on all four legs, and, in bullfighting, the banderillero's squaring up to the bull.^[2][14] In southern Brazil quadrar o corpo is to hold the body upright with the chest out.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use quadrar for squaring stones.^[8][2]
• 1544 – a private letter has the form cuadrou.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses the verb with Latin quadro.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds Latin cado and cohaereo “to fit, agree”.^[11]
• 1712 – Bluteau records the geometrical sense and the squaring of the circle.^[12]
• 1798–1799 – Viterbo records the old sense “to belong to”.^[9]
• 1813 – Morais adds the arithmetic sense and “to suit, be consistent”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give a square shape to; to square (quadrado): quadrar uma pedra.^[2][18]
2. To mark out the area of a piece of land.^[2]
3. (mathematics) To raise a number to the second power, to square it.^[2][19]
4. To suit, please, be convenient to someone: Esse horário não me quadra.^[2][18]
5. To agree with, fit, be consistent with (quadrar com, quadrar a); to adapt oneself.^[2][20]
6. To go well together in appearance; to match: O verde não quadra com o laranja.^[2]
7. To set before, present: a sorte quadrou-lhe um novo desafio.^[2]
8. To cut cork (cortiça) into squares for making stoppers and floats.^[2][14]
9. (horsemanship) To halt a horse so that its weight rests evenly on its four legs.^[2]
10. (southern Brazil) To hold the body upright with the chest out and the shoulders raised; to stand straight.^[2][18][15]
11. (bullfighting) Of a banderillero, to stand squarely facing the bull in order to place the banderillas (bandarilha).^[2][19]

Related words

• quadro
• quadrado
• quadra
• Latin quadrō
• Spanish cuadrar
• Galician cadrar

Usage notes

In Portugal the dialect surveys also record quadrar with the sense “to rhyme”.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. quadrar
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. quadrar
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. quadrō
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6914
6. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cuadrar
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. carrer
8. ^ 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. quadrar
9. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 250
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. quadrare
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. quadrar
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. quadrar
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 531
14. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7619
15. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. 2, s.v. quadrar
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. quadrar
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. quadrar
18. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. quadrar
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. quadrar
20. ^ 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. quadrar
21. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. quadrar