receber

Forms

receber (first-person singular present recebo, first-person singular preterite recebi, past participle recebido)^[1] Old forms: receber and reçebir in the 13th century, rreçebya in the 14th.^[2] Galician charters of the 1260s also have rizibi “I received”.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin recipiō (“to take back; to receive”), written Old Galician-Portuguese receber in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from re- and capiō (“to take”), with the Old Latin weakening of the unstressed /a/.^[1] Nascentes, after Cornu, Meyer-Lübke and Nunes, explains that the feeling that the verb was a compound kept its ⟨c⟩ from the usual weakening between vowels.^[5]

The same Latin verb is Spanish recibir, Catalan rebre, French recevoir and Italian ricevere.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date is a Latin charter of 1048 with recebi “I received”.^[2] The first Galician-Portuguese records are Galician charters: in 1228 Meyrinos et sayones non intren in casa de nengũu receber pignora “bailiffs and officers shall not enter anyone's house to take pledges”, and in 1270 et reconosco que recebi de uos “and I acknowledge that I received from you”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the verb also means “to welcome”, “to admit into a religious order” and, of God, “to receive a soul”.^[3] The cantigas use it for suffering blows and insults too.^[7] Houaiss notes that the medieval index records further 15th-century uses: “to admit”, “to be ordained”, “to attend to”, “to be pleased” and “to be killed”.^[2]

Cardoso (1569) glosses receber as “to marry”, and Barbosa (1611) has receber o marido a molher “the husband takes the woman to wife”.^[8][9] Bluteau (1712–1728) gives the moon receiving its light from the sun and receiving a guest into one's house.^[10] Today the verb also means “to host, have visitors”, and the marriage sense survives in the pronominal receber-se “to get married”.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1048 – a Latin charter has recebi.^[2]
• 1228 – receber pignora “to take pledges” in a Galician charter.^[3]
• 13th century – first records of recebedor and recebemento.^[4]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use the verb for welcoming and admitting.^[3]
• 14th century – first record of recebimento.^[4]
• 1416 – receber in the Vida de Santo Aleixo.^[12]
• 15th century – Houaiss's first date for “to accept (someone) as”.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses the verb as “to marry”.^[8]
• 1789 – Morais lists receiving a guest, a visit, news and a wound.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To receive, get (something given, sent or handed over): Recebi uma carta da minha tia.^[2][11][1]
2. To be paid; to collect what is owed: receber o ordenado.^[14][11][1]
3. To come into possession of; to inherit.^[2][14]
4. To be given as a reward: receber uma medalha.^[2]
5. To welcome, host;^[2][15][1] (intransitive) to have visitors.^[2][15][1]
6. To accept, admit: Recebeu mal o conselho.^[14][11]
7. To suffer, be hit by: receber um golpe.^[15][1]
8. To take in, collect (of a river or container): O lago recebe as águas de três ribeiras.^[2]
9. To marry;^[11][15] (pronominal) to get married.^[11][15]
10. (telecommunications) To receive (a signal).^[1]
11. To be possessed by a spirit.^[16]

Word family

• recebedor
• recebedoria
• recebedouro
• recebimento

Related words

• recepção
• recepcionar
• recepcionista
• receptação
• receptibilidade
• receptível
• receptivo
• receptáculo
• Latin recipiō
• Spanish recibir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. receber
3. ^ 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. receber
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. receber
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 436
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. recipere
7. ^ 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. receber
8. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. receber
9. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. receber
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. receber
11. ^ a b c d e f Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. receber
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. receber
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, 294
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. receber
15. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7829
16. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. receber