responder

Forms

responder (first-person singular present respondo, first-person singular preterite respondi, past participle respondido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote responder, rresponder and respõder; the old preterite was respos beside respondeu and respondeo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin respondeō (“to answer”), written Old Galician-Portuguese responder in the oldest texts.^[3][1][2] Wiktionary thinks it came through the Late Latin form of the third conjugation, respondō, attested in a late veterinary treatise.^[1] The same Latin verb is Galician responder, Spanish responder, Catalan respondre, French répondre, Italian rispondere and Romanian răspunde.^[4][1]

The Latin verb is formed from re- and spondeō (“to pledge, promise”), and first meant to promise something in return; the OLD suggests it was originally a legal term for the reply to a formal pledge.^[1][5][6] The simple verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *spondéyeti (“to make an offering, libate”), a causative related to Ancient Greek σπένδω (spéndō, “to pour a libation”).^[7][1]

The old preterite Old Galician-Portuguese respos matches the old Spanish respuso.^[2][8] The noun resposta blends the feminine past participle of repōnō (“to put back”) with the Latin verb.^[9] The REW explains the old and Alentejan reposta and the old Old Galician-Portuguese reponder by dissimilation.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's date of 1152 is a Latin charter with responda, and a Latin text of 1234–1236 has ipsos homines qui uenissent responder.^[3][2] The first vernacular records are notarial texts of 1257: e essa Maor Rodriguiz respondeu e disso, “and this Maior Rodrigues answered and said”.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the same century have O judeu lle respos assi, “the Jew answered him thus”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Beside “to answer”, the medieval texts use the verb in the legal sense “to answer for, be accountable”: a text of 1258–1261 orders men to obey and respondessen da uoz do Rey, answer to the king's summons.^[2] Bluteau (1712–1728) notes the forensic use, responder perante as justiças, to appear before the courts.^[11]

Morais (1789) adds “to correspond, be in keeping with” (o fim respondeu ao princípio).^[12] Modern senses include to talk back, to echo, to face (of a place), to retaliate and to react to a stimulus.^[3][13] In the Portuguese dialects a pain that responde radiates to another part of the body.^[14]

Timeline

• 1152 – a Latin charter has responda.^[3]
• 1257 – respondeu e disso in a notarial text.^[2]
• 13th century – respos in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2]
• c. 1430 – first dated text in the CTA, the Horto do Esposo.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin respondeo.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records the sense “to correspond”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To answer, to reply in speech or writing.^[3][17][1]
2. (intransitive) To talk back, to be insolent; to argue instead of obeying.^[3][1]
3. (intransitive) To echo; to answer a call or a song with one's own.^[3][13]
4. (intransitive) To correspond to, to match; to face (of a place).^[3][1]
5. (intransitive) To be responsible or answerable for: responder pelos filhos.^[3][1]
6. (intransitive) To return like for like; to strike back.^[3][1]
7. (intransitive) To react to a stimulus.^[3]
8. (law) To be the defendant in a case.^[3][1]

Word family

• respondão
• respondedor
• respondível

Related words

• respondente
• resposta
• Latin respondeō
• Galician responder

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. responder
3. ^ 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. responder
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7247
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. responder
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. resposta
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. responder
12. ^ a b 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, 335
13. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. responder
14. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. responder
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. responder
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. responder
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. responder