restringir

Forms

restringir (first-person singular present restrinjo, first-person singular preterite restringi, past participle restringido)^[1] Houaiss records a 15th-century form restrangessen.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin restringō (“to bind fast; to hold back, restrain”), first recorded in the 14th century.^[2][3][1] Nascentes calls it semi-learned.^[4] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and stringō (“to press, tighten”).^[1][5]

The REW lists the inherited outcomes Old French restreindre, Old Occitan restrenher, Catalan restrènyer and Italian ristringere, beside the learned Spanish restringir.^[6][7] French borrowed the Latin word about 1130 and reshaped it on the verbs ending in ⟨-eindre⟩.^[8] The Galician form is restrinxir.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is the Horto do Esposo, a devotional text of the 14th century.^[2] In Latin the verb first meant to tie the hands behind someone or to draw bonds tight.^[5] Bluteau notes that the Portuguese word is the Latin one and that it was used mainly in a transferred sense, to limit or narrow the meaning of something by a qualification.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau's quotations show the word applied to laws and to the sense of a common noun narrowed to one thing.^[9] Morais (1789) gives the same senses, and in 1813 adds the pronominal restringir-se “to hold oneself back, refrain”, with a quotation from Diogo do Couto.^[10][11] Vieira (1871–1874) calls the concrete sense “to tighten” a term of medicine and quotes the verb from the Ordenações Afonsinas, where it limits the scope of a law.^[12] The grammatical use, giving a word a narrower meaning, is in Aulete and Priberam.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, in the Horto do Esposo.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the form restrangessen.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses the word with Latin restringo.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes it as a Latin word used figuratively, “to limit”.^[9]
• 1734 – Feijó glosses it as “to tighten”.^[16]
• 1813 – Morais adds the pronominal restringir-se “to refrain”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make narrower or tighter: As obras restringiram a entrada da rua.^[2][17]
2. To restrict, limit; to reduce to narrower bounds: restringir o acesso aos sócios.^[2][17][1]
3. To shorten, lessen.^[17][14]
4. (grammar) To give a word or phrase a narrower sense.^[14][18]
5. (medicine) To tighten or strengthen a slack part of the body.^[14][18]
6. (reflexive) To confine oneself; to hold oneself back, refrain (refrear).^[2][14]

Related words

• restrição
• restrito
• restritivo
• restringente
• irrestrito
• Latin restringō
• Spanish restringir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. restringir
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. restrição
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. restringir
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. restringō
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7252
7. ^ 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. restringir
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. restreindre
9. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. restringir
10. ^ 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, 337
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 618
12. ^ 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, 264
13. ^ 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. restringir
14. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. restringir
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. restringir
16. ^ 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. restringir
17. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. restringir
18. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. restringir