rezar

Forms

rezar (first-person singular present rezo, first-person singular preterite rezei, past participle rezado)^[1] Houaiss records the old forms rez (13th century), rreçee (14th century) and rresando (15th century).^[2] The TLPGP has a dialect variant razar in Portugal.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin recitō (“to read aloud, recite”), written Old Galician-Portuguese rezar in the oldest texts.^[2][4][5][1] The Latin verb went through *rezdar and *redzar on its way to the modern form, according to the DDGM's glossary of the Galician chronicle, and Cornu and Nunes give the intermediate form *rezedar beside it.^[6][7] It is a doublet of the learned recitar.^[1][4]

The same Latin word is Galician rezar, Spanish rezar (Old Spanish rezdar) and Catalan resar.^[8][1] In Spanish it meant “to recite, read aloud” until the 16th century, before it narrowed to “to pray”.^[9][10]

The Latin verb is formed from re- (“again”) and citō (“to call forth, set in motion”), itself from cieō (“to move, stir”).^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century a devotee sas Aves-Marias rezou “said her Hail Marys”, and a cleric un gran livr' enteiro / rezava cada dia “recited a whole big book every day”.^[6] The Chronicle of 1344 still has the older sense “to recite”: the translation of the psalter ajnda o rrezã em algũas igreias cathedraaes “they still recite it in some cathedral churches”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From reciting texts aloud the verb narrowed to saying prayers, and to celebrating mass.^[2][5] Barbosa in 1611 gives Rezar o rosario with Latin recitare, and Bluteau in 1712 notes that some religious orders call their way of saying the Divine Office in choir Rezar.^[12][13] Morais in 1789 adds “to state in writing” and “to mutter”.^[14] The noun reza “prayer” is recorded from 1813.^[4] In Brazil the verb also means to heal or bless someone with prayers.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 1200s – rezou and rezava in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[6]
• 1344 – rrezã “they recite” in the Chronicle of 1344.^[6]
• after 1450 – rezar in the Livro das tres vertudes.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin recito.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists Rezar o rosario.^[12]
• 1712 – Bluteau derives it from Greek or from Latin recitare.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais adds “to mention in writing” and “to mutter”.^[14]
• 1813 – first record of the noun reza.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To pray.^[2][18][1]
2. (transitive) To say a prayer: rezar três ave-marias.^[2][19][1]
3. (transitive) To say or celebrate missa.^[2][20][1]
4. (transitive) To read from a prayer book.^[2]
5. (transitive, Brazil) To heal or bless someone with prayers.^[2][15]
6. (popular) To mutter, grumble.^[2][18]
7. (transitive, of a text) To state, say: o contrato reza que….^[2][20]
8. (intransitive, with de) To tell of, deal with.^[2]

Word family

• reza
• rezador

Related words

• recital
• recitar
• rezadeiro
• rezado
• Galician rezar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. rezar
3. ^ 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. rezar
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. rezar
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. rezar
6. ^ a b c d e 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. rezar
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 443
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. recitare
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 903
10. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rezar
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. citō
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rezar
13. ^ 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. rezar
14. ^ 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, 346
15. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. rezar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. rezar
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rezar
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. rezar
19. ^ 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. rezar
20. ^ 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. rezar