resolver

Forms

resolver (first-person singular present resolvo, first-person singular preterite resolvi, past participle resolvido)^[1] A 15th-century text has the present resoluem (resolvem), with ⟨u⟩ for /v/.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin resolvō (“to untie, loosen; to dissolve; to explain”), taken by the learned route.^[2][3][1] Houaiss dates the first record to the 14th century.^[2]

The Latin verb is formed from re- and solvō (“to loosen, unbind”).^[4][1] Its first meaning was to undo something tied or sealed, a knot or a bond.^[4][5]

The same Latin verb is Galician resolver, Spanish resolver, Catalan resoldre, Occitan resòlvre, French résoudre and Italian risolvere.^[1][6]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) glosses the verb with Latin solvo, resolvo and dissolvo.^[7] Morais in 1813 begins with the chemist's sense, to break a body down into its elements, then gives the physician's (to make a tumour or an inflammation go down), “to dissolve”, and only then “to decide a doubt or a question”, quoting António Vieira, and the reflexive resolver-se “to fall apart; to take another form”.^[8] Vieira's dictionary of 1871–1874 keeps the same order, with a legal sense besides.^[9]

In today's language the main senses are “to decide, make up one's mind” and “to solve”, while the chemical and medical uses survive as technical senses.^[2][10][11] Used without an object, the verb also means “to be of use, to help”.^[2]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record.^[2]
• 15th century – the form resoluem.^[2]
• 1561 – a private letter has resolva.^[12]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro glosses it with Latin solvo, resolvo and dissolvo.^[7]
• 1813 – Morais gives the chemical, medical and deliberative senses.^[8]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira adds the legal sense.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and pronominal) To break down or be broken down into constituent elements; to dissolve.^[2][13][1]
2. (medicine) To make (a tumour, a swelling, an infection) disappear little by little;^[2][10] (pronominal) to clear up.^[2][10]
3. To decide, make up one's mind: resolveu mudar de casa;^[2][1] (pronominal) resolver-se a, to bring oneself to.^[2][1]
4. To solve, find the answer to (a problem, a question, an equation): resolveu o enigma num minuto.^[2][10][1]
5. (law) To annul, rescind (a contract).^[2][11][1]
6. (transitive and pronominal) To turn or be turned into something; to be reduced to: tudo se resolve em cinza.^[2][13]
7. (intransitive) To be of use, to help: chorar não resolve.^[2]
8. (pronominal) To consist in, rest on (resolver-se em).^[2][1]

Word family

• resolvido
• resolvível
• resolvedor

Related words

• resolubilidade
• resolução
• resolutamente
• resolutivo
• resoluto
• resolutório
• resolúvel
• solver
• dissolver
• absolver

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 n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. resolver
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. resolver
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. resoluō
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. resolvo
6. ^ 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. resolver
7. ^ a b 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. resolver
8. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 613
9. ^ a b 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, 245
10. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. resolver
11. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8037
12. ^ 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. resolver
13. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. resolver