reservar

Forms

reservar (first-person singular present reservo, first-person singular preterite reservei, past participle reservado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin reservō (“to keep back, save up, hold in reserve”).^[2][3][4] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and servō (“to keep, preserve”).^[5][1] Medieval Latin used it in law for keeping a right for oneself or for another in a contract.^[6][7]

The same Latin verb was borrowed as Spanish reservar, Galician reservar, French réserver and Italian riservare.^[8][7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record, from Lorenzo, is of 1340, spelt reseruo; the 15th century has reservar and rreservando.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) glosses the verb as “to keep” and gives phrases for keeping something for someone or for another time, for saving oneself for later and for keeping secrets.^[9] Vieira (1871–1874) quotes Damião de Góis's chronicle of King Manuel for the legal sense “to make a reservation, except”.^[10] The original Caldas Aulete adds “to postpone” and “to preserve, protect”.^[11] The commercial sense, to book a seat, table or ticket in advance, is among the modern senses of Houaiss, Aurélio and the DLP.^[2][12][4] The back-formation reserva is first recorded in 1652.^[13] The verb passed into Hunsrik, the German dialect of southern Brazil, as rësërveere.^[1]

Timeline

• 1340 – first record, spelt reseruo.^[2]
• 15th century – reservar and rreservando.^[2]
• 1542 – reservar in a private letter.^[14]
• 1652 – first record of reserva.^[13]
• 1697 – Pereira enters Reservar.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau's article with its phrases.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To set aside, keep for later, save;^[2][12] (reflexive) to save oneself for a later occasion: Reservou as forças para a segunda parte.^[2][12]
2. (transitive) To destine or allot to someone or something: A lei reserva estes lugares a pessoas com deficiência.^[2][12][4]
3. (transitive) To book in advance: reservar um quarto.^[2][12][4]
4. (transitive) To keep to oneself, keep secret.^[2][12]
5. (transitive) To preserve or protect from something.^[2][12][16]
6. (transitive) To postpone, put off.^[16][11]

Word family

• reserva

Related words

• reservado
• reservatório
• conservar
• preservar
• Latin servō
• Spanish reservar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. reservar
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. reservar
4. ^ a b c d 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. reservar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. reseruō
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. reservare
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. réserver
8. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. reservar
9. ^ 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. reservar
10. ^ 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, 235
11. ^ 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. reservar
12. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. reservar
13. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. reserva
14. ^ 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. reservar
15. ^ 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. reservar
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. reservar