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quebrar

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word quebrar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s Cantigas de Santa Maria More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin crepo
Ultimate origin
Latin crepō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin crepō
French crever
Italian crepare
Portuguese quebrar
Romanian crăpa
Spanish quebrar
From the same root
Latin concrepō ← crepō
Latin crepitō ← crepō
Latin crepitus ← crepō
Latin dēcrepitus ← crepō
Latin discrepō ← crepō
Latin increpō ← crepō
French crevasse ← crever
Italian crepatura ← crepare
Romanian crăpăt ← crăpa

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /keˈbɾa(ʁ)/, [keˈbɾa(h)][1]
  • São-Paulo: /keˈbɾa(ɾ)/[1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /keˈbɾa(ʁ)/, [keˈbɾa(χ)][1]
  • Caipira: /keˈbɾa(ɻ)/[1]

Forms

quebrar (first-person singular present quebro, first-person singular preterite quebrei, past participle quebrado)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crepō (“to crack, rattle; to burst”), with the metathesis of /r/ that turned an older Old Galician-Portuguese crebar into Old Galician-Portuguese quebrar.[2][3][1][4] The form without metathesis survives in Galician, Old Spanish and the dialect of the Minho.[4][5]

The same Latin word is Spanish quebrar, Galician crebar, Italian crepare and French crever.[4][6] In Latin it meant to make a sharp noise, crack or rattle, and only in Late Latin “to burst”;[6][7][5] Nascentes explains the sense from the crash that goes with breaking.[6][7][5]

The Latin verb is imitative of harsh sounds.[7][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *ḱrep- (“to rattle, crackle”), compared with the Hittite verb for “to be angry” and Sanskrit कृपते (kṛpate, “to mourn”).[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters of the region already have the Romance form: crebaverunt meas scripturas “they broke my deeds” in 1015, and crebaret in a text of the Leges dated 1188–1230.[9][4] In Galician-Portuguese the verb appears in the 13th century, mostly without an object, “to break, burst”: in the Cantigas de Santa Maria a cave per meo quebrar-se / foi “split down the middle”, a heavy staff quebrou pelo meo “broke in half”, and someone who fell from a cliff quebrou per todo o corpo “was broken all over”.[9][3]

Semantic evolution

The satirical cantigas already use it for a ship that is wrecked, for breaking a spell and for breaking an order or law;[9][10][2] Houaiss dates the sense “to infringe” to the 14th century.[9][10][2] Barbosa (1611) has quebrar a palavra “to break one's word”.[11] Folqman (1755) records waves that break on the shore and a merchant who quebra, going bankrupt.[12] Morais (1789) quotes Lucena on waves breaking in foam.[13]

Brazilian Portuguese gave it the informal senses “to beat up” and “to go broke”, and in the north-east “to break in a horse”.[2][14] In the south it also means to turn sharply.[15]

Timeline

  • 1015 – crebaverunt in a Latin charter.[9][2]
  • 1188–1230 – crebaret in the Leges.[4]
  • 13th century – quebrar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[9][3]
  • 14th century – first dated uses for “to infringe” and “to break into parts, fracture”.[2]
  • 1569 – Cardoso renders quebrar by Latin frango.[16]
  • 1611 – Barbosa lists quebrar a palavra.[11]
  • 1734 – Feijó warns against confusing quebrar and cobrar.[17]
  • 1755 – Folqman records the sense “to go bankrupt”.[12]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To break, to smash into pieces; to break apart: Deixou cair a travessa e quebrou-a.[2][1]
  2. To fracture a bone or limb: quebrar o braço.[2][18][1]
  3. To weaken, to lessen the force of: quebrar o calor.[2][18]
  4. To infringe (infringir) a rule or law; to fail to keep a promise or oath.[2][1]
  5. To interrupt, to put an end to: quebrar o silêncio.[2][18]
  6. To damage, to put out of order;[2][19][1] (of a machine or vehicle) to break down.[2][19][1]
  7. To bend or twist; to deflect light.[2]
  8. To subdue, to tame: quebrar a resistência.[2]
  9. (of waves) To break against the shore.[2][1]
  10. To go bankrupt;[2][1] (Brazil, informal) to run out of money.[2][1]
  11. (Brazil, informal) To beat someone up.[2][1]
  12. (north-eastern Brazil) To train a horse to the bit.[2][14]
  13. To set a new record (recorde).[1]

Word family

  • quebra
  • quebrada
  • quebradeira
  • quebradiço
  • quebrado
  • quebro
  • requebrar
  • requebrado
  • quebra-mar
  • quebra-nozes
  • quebra-gelo
  • quebra-galho
  • inquebrável

Usage notes

Viterbo's Elucidário records an old quebrar meaning “to recover, claim, obtain”, that is, cobrar;[20][17] Feijó (1734) insists that quebrar “break into pieces” and cobrar “collect” are quite different words.[20][17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. quebrar
  3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. quebrar
  4. ^ a b c d e Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 426
  5. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. quebrar
  6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 706
  7. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. crepō
  8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c d e f 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. quebrar
  10. ^ a b 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. quebrar
  11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. quebrar
  12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. quebrar
  13. ^ 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, 273
  14. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. quebrar
  15. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. quebrar
  16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. quebrar
  17. ^ a b c 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. quebrar
  18. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. quebrar
  19. ^ a b 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. quebrar
  20. ^ 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, 255

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Quebrar.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/quebrar. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·