reclamar

Forms

reclamar (first-person singular present reclamo, first-person singular preterite reclamei, past participle reclamado)^[1] In the 15th century the verb was also written recramar.^[2][3] Feijó (1734) pairs the two spellings Reclamar and Recramar.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin reclāmō (“to cry out against, protest”), a learned word.^[1][2][3][5] The Latin verb is formed from re- and clāmō (“to shout”).^[6][1] It first meant “to call out in reply” and “to shout back, protest”.^[6] Medieval Latin used it for complaining of a wrong, appealing to a higher authority and claiming something.^[7] De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *klāmo- (“shout”) and Proto-Indo-European *klh₁-m(o)-.^[8]

The 15th-century spelling Old Galician-Portuguese recramar has /r/ for /l/ after the consonant.^[2][3] The same Latin verb is Spanish reclamar, Catalan reclamar, Italian reclamare and Romanian reclama.^[1] In French, Old French reclamer is recorded from 1080, and became French réclamer in the 16th century.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 15th century.^[2][3] Morais quotes recramando-se from the Ordenações Afonsinas, in the legal sense of refusing to accept an arbitration.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defines the verb as opposing and crying out against something as unjust, and quotes the Ordenação that one may appeal against an arbitration within a year.^[11] Morais (1789) adds hunting senses, calling one bird with another and luring birds with a decoy call (reclamo), and the sense “to resound, echo”.^[12] Silva Bastos (1912) records a new sense, “to praise or advertise a product or a business”.^[13] The everyday sense “to complain (about something)”, reclamar de, is the first sense in Houaiss and Aurélio.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records, also spelt recramar.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses it with Latin reclamo.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as protesting against something unjust.^[11]
• 1734 – Feijó gives Reclamar and Recramar.^[4]
• 1789 – Morais adds the senses of luring birds and of echoing.^[12]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the sense “to advertise”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To protest, to object in words; to complain: Os moradores reclamaram contra o barulho das obras.^[2][14][1]
2. To complain of a physical or moral state, such as pains or grievances; to find fault with someone or something.^[2][14]
3. To claim, to demand what belongs to one; to claim the ownership or authorship of something.^[2][16][1]
4. To implore, to ask for insistently.^[2][17]
5. To call urgently for someone's presence or action.^[2]
6. (hunting) To lure birds with a decoy call (reclamo).^[2][12]

Word family

• reclamação
• reclamante
• reclamão
• reclamo

Related words

• clamar
• exclamar
• Latin clāmō
• Spanish reclamar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. reclamar
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. reclamar
4. ^ a b 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. reclamar
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. reclamar
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. reclamo
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. reclamare
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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. réclamer
10. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 565
11. ^ 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. reclamar
12. ^ 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, 296
13. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. reclamar
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. reclamar
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. reclamar
16. ^ 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. reclamar
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. reclamar