rir

Forms

rir (first-person singular present rio, first-person singular preterite ri, past participle rido)^[1] The medieval infinitive was riir, also rijr and rriyr, with the gerund riindo; the contracted rir is recorded from the 15th century.^[2][3] The medieval present subjunctive was riia or rija.^[4] Feijó (1734) gives the present rio, rîs, ri, rîmos, rides, rîem.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rīdeō (“to laugh”), written Old Galician-Portuguese riir in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Romance forms point to a Vulgar Latin infinitive different from the classical one: Wiktionary gives one in ⟨-īre⟩, the DHLF one with a short ⟨ĕ⟩.^[1][6] Nascentes derives the old Portuguese forms from a variant with a short ⟨i⟩, through Old Galician-Portuguese reir.^[7]

The same Latin word is Galician rir, Asturian rir, Spanish reír, Catalan riure, French rire, Italian ridere and Romanian râde.^[8][1] The Libro de Alexandre has Old Leonese rier and Old Leonese riir.^[9][10]

The origin of the Latin verb is uncertain.^[1] The OLD compares व्रीडते (vrīḍate, “to be ashamed”), a link that de Vaan rejects;^[11][1][12] Matasović connects it with *wrītaną (“to scratch”).^[11][1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria have chorand' e non riindo “weeping and not laughing”.^[4] In a cantiga d'escarnho of Afonso X someone começou de riir / muito del e escarnir “began to laugh at him a great deal and mock him”, and Johan Soarez de Pavia uses the reflexive riir-se.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) heads the word rir, ou rirse, showing the reflexive use beside the intransitive.^[13] Figurative uses, of a landscape, a face or fortune that “laughs”, are among the quotations of the older Aulete.^[14]

In popular Portuguese rir also means “to split, to tear”, of cloth.^[15][16] The infinitive is used as a noun, o rir “laughing, laughter”.^[17]

Timeline

• 13th century – riindo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][2]
• 14th century – the forms riin, rijr and rriyr.^[2]
• 15th century – first record of the contracted rir.^[2]
• c. 1450 – rir in the Livro das tres vertudes.^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses rir with Latin rideo.^[19]
• 1734 – Feijó gives the present tense rio, rîs, ri.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also reflexive) To laugh: As crianças riam-se do palhaço.^[2][20][1]
2. (intransitive) To look cheerful; of a face or the eyes, to show joy.^[21][17]
3. (intransitive) Of a thing, to look bright and pleasant; to smile.^[20][16][1]
4. (transitive, with de) To find something funny.^[15][17]
5. (transitive, with de) To mock, to make fun of.^[2][15][1]
6. (popular) Of cloth, to split or tear.^[15][16]

Related words

• riso
• sorrir
• sorriso
• risonho
• risível
• Latin rīdeō
• Galician rir
• Spanish reír

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. rir
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. rir
4. ^ a b c d 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. riir
5. ^ a b 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. rir
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. rire
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. rir
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7302
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ridere
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 857
11. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. rideo
12. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rir
14. ^ 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. rir
15. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. rir
16. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8132
17. ^ a b c 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. rir
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. rir
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rir
20. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. rir
21. ^ 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. rir