quedar

Forms

quedar (first-person singular present quedo, first-person singular preterite quedei, past participle quedado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *quētō, a reduced form of Late Latin quiētō (“to give rest, to quiet”), written Old Galician-Portuguese quedar in the oldest texts.^{[2][3][1][4][5]} Houaiss, the DLP and Michaelis give only the full Latin form.^[4][6][7] The Latin verb is formed on quiētus (“quiet, calm”), the past participle of quiēscō (“to rest”), from quiēs (“rest”).^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician quedar, Spanish quedar “to remain” and Italian chetare “to calm”.^[3][8][9] The Spanish verb comes from the adjective quedo (“still”), through the sense “to keep still” and then “to remain”, according to Corominas.^[10] Wiktionary names the learned quietar as its doublet; quitar “to remove” goes back through French to Medieval Latin quitō, a reduced form of the same verb.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology finds the verb in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: log' a tormenta quedou “at once the storm abated” (cantiga 9) and as seis galeas non quedavan de vĩir “the six galleys did not stop coming” (cantiga 35).^[11] The first sense is thus “to stop, cease”, of something that was moving.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Michaëlis's glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda explains that from “to be quiet, stand still” the verb came to mean both “to stay, continue” and “to cease, leave off”, as in non quedou chorando “he did not stop weeping”.^[11][12] The Universo Cantigas glossary sorts the troubadours' uses into “to cease”, “to calm down” and “to stay”.^[13] The Crónica Troiana uses it of a storm that never let up.^[11]

Morais (1813) gives “to remain” and “to stop, leave off”, quoting a chronicle where a bestaria não quedava de atirar aos do muro “the crossbowmen did not stop shooting at those on the wall”.^[14] The modern senses are “to keep still”, “to stay in a place” and, as a copula, “to remain (in a state)”; the original Caldas Aulete illustrates them from Gonçalves Dias, Camilo and Castilho.^[4][15] The verb also lives in regional speech, as “to stop, stay” in Portugal and “to keep still” in Brazil.^[16]

Timeline

• 13th century, second half – the Cantigas de Santa Maria have log' a tormenta quedou.^[11][17]
• 1431 – the Vida do honrado Infante Josafat (witness 1431–1446) uses the verb.^[18]
• 1813 – Morais gives “to remain” and “to stop, leave off”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also pronominal) To be or keep still, quiet; to stay put: O gato quedou-se à janela a olhar a chuva.^[4][5][7][1]
2. (intransitive, also pronominal) To stop, stay or linger in a place.^{[4][19][7][1]}
3. (copulative, also pronominal) To remain, go on being (in a state): quedou pensativo.^{[4][5][20][1]}
4. (transitive) To stop, hold back.^[20]

Related words

• quedo
• quieto
• quietar
• quitar
• Latin quiētō
• Spanish quedar

Usage notes

Houaiss also records a separate regional verb quedar “to curl (hair)”, formed from queda with the suffix -ar.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. quedar
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6956
4. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. quedar
5. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. quedar
6. ^ 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. quedar
7. ^ a b c 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. quedar
8. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. quietare
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. quedar
10. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. quedo
11. ^ a b c d e 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. quedar
12. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. quedar
13. ^ 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. quedar
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 538
15. ^ 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. quedar
16. ^ 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. quedar
17. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. quieto
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. quedar
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. quedar
20. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7645