queimar

Forms

queimar (first-person singular present queimo, first-person singular preterite queimei, past participle queimado)^[1] Houaiss records queimena in 1152, queimar and quemar in the 13th century and queymar in the 14th.^[2] The glossary of the Cantigas de Santa Maria refers to the form quemar as well.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *caimō (“to burn”), written Old Galician-Portuguese queimar in the oldest texts, a reshaping of Latin cremō (“to burn, consume by fire”).^[2][1][4] Corominas, whom Houaiss follows, explains the change by the influence of Ancient Greek κάϊμα (káïma, “a burn, burning heat”), a word that Greek physicians in the West used when speaking of cauterising; he finds the phonetic obstacles too great to derive the Ibero-Romance verb straight from the Latin.^[5][2][6] Nascentes gives the same view, and the DLP calls the Greek influence possible.^[7][8]

Older scholars derived the verb directly from the Latin word, and Carolina Michaëlis supposed a further influence on its form.^[9][3] Meyer-Lübke objected that the loss of the r was hard to accept and that the Portuguese diphthong was left unexplained.^[9][3] Corominas notes that the form with ⟨ei⟩ was general in Galician and Portuguese from the earliest period, found in charters from 1180 on.^[5]

The verb is Galician queimar and Spanish quemar, which is recorded at the end of the 10th century in the Glosas de Silos.^[1][6][5] By contrast Catalan cremar, Old Occitan cremar and the Aragonese cremar of the High Aragonese valleys keep the Latin form.^[5][10]

De Vaan takes the Latin verb to be probably a denominative; a link with carbō (“charcoal”) is possible in theory, and the only forms he finds worth comparing are the Celtic words for “beer” from Proto-Celtic *kormi-.^[11] Wiktionary mentions Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- (“to burn”) as a possible root.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1065 already has the Romance verb in pro ila uina que ad uouis keitmarum, of a vineyard that was burnt.^[3][2] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria it means “to burn, put to death by fire”, as in eno fogo o queimaron “they burnt him in the fire”, and also “to burn (candles) before the image of the Virgin”; once it is intransitive, in queimavan peyor que fogo “they burnt worse than fire”.^[3][5] In the cantigas d'amigo it is “to make burn” on the altar.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines “to set ablaze, consume with fire, reduce to ashes”, with queimar incenso “to burn incense”.^[12] Morais (1789) adds the effect of strong sun, frost and strong wine, and several figurative senses: queimar sua fazenda “to squander one's property”, queimar o sangue a alguém “to vex someone”, and the familiar queimar as pestanas “to study late into the night”.^[13]

Brazilian Portuguese gave the verb many new senses: of a device, to stop working; to fire pottery or bricks; to shoot someone; to ruin someone's good name.^[2][1] In north-eastern Brazil queimar is also to miss a step in a dance and, reflexively, to sunbathe, and in Rio Grande do Sul queimar campo means “to lie, boast”.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1065 – a Latin charter writes keitmarum “they burnt”.^[3]
• 1152 – the form queimena.^[2][3]
• 1180 – first of the Portuguese charters with queimar that Corominas cites.^[5]
• 13th century – queimar and quemar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• 1431–1446 – queimar in the treatise Do Inferno, the earliest text with it in the CTA.^[16]
• 1537 – a private letter has queymay.^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses the verb with Latin uro.^[18]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it cremo, uro, incendo.^[19]
• 1789 – Morais records queimar as pestanas and other figurative senses.^[13]
• 1871 – Vieira quotes a chronicle in which Vasco da Gama has a supply ship burnt.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To burn, destroy by fire, reduce to ashes: Queimou os jornais velhos no quintal.^[2][4][1]
2. To set fire to;^[2][1] (reflexive) to catch fire.^[2][1]
3. To scorch or parch by too much heat or cold;^[2][14] (Brazil, reflexive) to sunbathe for a tan.^[2][14]
4. To burn the skin or give a burning feeling: O chá quente queimou-me a boca.^[2][1]
5. To be very hot: Ao meio-dia a areia queimava.^[2][21]
6. (of a lamp or fuse) To burn out;^[2][1] (Brazil, of an appliance) to break down.^[2][1]
7. (figurative) To squander money or resources; to sell off cheaply.^[21][1]
8. (Brazil) To fire pottery, bricks or tiles in a kiln.^[2]
9. (Brazil, figurative) To damage someone's reputation;^[2][1] (reflexive) to compromise oneself.^[2][1]
10. (Brazil, informal) To shoot at someone.^[2]
11. (reflexive) To lose one's temper.^[21][15]

Word family

• queima
• queimada
• queimado
• queimadura
• queimadiço
• queimação
• requeimar

Related words

• cremar
• Latin cremo
• Galician queimar
• Spanish quemar

Usage notes

Queimar as pestanas “to burn one's eyelashes” means to study hard late at night.^[13] In Brazilian slang queimar is also to light a cigarette.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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. queimar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. queimar
4. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. queimar
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 714
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. quemar
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. queimar
8. ^ 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. queimar
9. ^ a b 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
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cremare
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. queimar
13. ^ a b c 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, 275
14. ^ a b c Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. queimar
15. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. queimar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. queimar
17. ^ 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. queimar
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. queimar
19. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. queimar
20. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 37
21. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. queimar