restar

Forms

restar (first-person singular present resto, first-person singular preterite restei, past participle restado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin restō (“to stay behind, remain, be left over”).^[2][3][1] Houaiss's first record is a text of 1574–1590, and none of the medieval glossaries lists the verb.^[2]

The REW lists it with Italian restare, Spanish restar and Catalan restar under the Latin verb.^[4] Corominas treats the Spanish verb, recorded in 1490, as taken from Latin,^[5] and French rester is a borrowing of the 12th century.^[6]

The Latin verb is formed from re- and stō (“to stand, stay”).^[7][1] Its classical senses were “to stay where one is”, “to resist”, “to survive” and “to be left”.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Houaiss's first record, of 1574–1590, the verb already has its main modern senses, “to remain after the rest has gone” and “to be still to do”.^[2] A private letter of 1588 has resta.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) glosses it with Latin resto and supersto, and Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as “to be left over”, with the impersonal resta ver, resta mostrar “it remains to see, to show”.^[9][10] The noun resto is formed from the verb.^[11]

Modern dictionaries add a transitive sense “to owe (a sum)”, which is also recorded in Portuguese dialect surveys.^[2][12] In Minho a wall that leans inwards is said to restar.^[13]

Timeline

• 1574–1590 – first record, according to Houaiss.^[2]
• 1588 – resta in a private letter.^[8]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it with Latin resto and supersto.^[9]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records resta ver “it remains to see”.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To remain after the destruction or departure of others; to survive: Pouco restou da velha casa.^[2][14][1]
2. To be still to do or to complete: Resta-nos só um capítulo.^[2][14]
3. To be left over; to be surplus: Restou muita comida.^[2][14]
4. To subsist as a remainder: Resta-lhe ainda alguma esperança.^[2][13]
5. (transitive) To owe a balance.^[2][12]

Word family

• restante

Related words

• resto
• estar
• Latin restō
• Spanish restar

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. restar
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. restar
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7248
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. restar
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. rester
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. restō
8. ^ a b 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. restar
9. ^ 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. restar
10. ^ 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. restar
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. restare
12. ^ a b 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. restar
13. ^ a b 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. restar
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. restar