roer

Forms

roer (first-person singular present roo, first-person singular preterite roí, past participle roído)^[1] Houaiss records the 14th-century spelling rroe (third person singular).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rōdō (“to gnaw”), written Old Galician-Portuguese roer in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The REW, following Bugge, also derives Portuguese rilhar “to gnaw” from the Latin verb.^[4]

The same Latin word is Galician roer, Spanish roer, Old Occitan roire, Old French roure, Italian rodere and Romanian roade.^[4][1]

The Latin verb, with its derivative rōstrum (“snout, beak”), goes back to Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d- (“to gnaw, scrape”).^[5][1] De Vaan finds the root etymology uncertain: it may be the root of a Sanskrit verb meaning “to dig, furrow”, or a root *wreh₃d- “to dig, rummage”, the source of Old English wrōtan and Old Norse róta.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology quotes the Cantigas de Santa Maria: “the devils began to gnaw all its flesh with great rage” (sas carnes os endiabrados / con gran ravia as começaron todas de roer).^[6] The verb also occurs in a cantiga d'escarnho of Johan Servando.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) already gives the metaphorical sense “to murmur against, speak ill of”, with Horace's amicum absentem rodere.^[8] Bluteau defines the verb as cutting small with the teeth and adds the metaphor “to disquiet, torment”, the proverb Osso, que acabas de comer, não o tornes a roer and the phrase estar roendo cadeados, said of someone who hides a rage they cannot relieve.^[9] Morais (1813) records both, with roer “to slander”.^[10]

Modern dictionaries add the senses “to wear away”, “to chafe” and “to brood over”.^[2][11] In Brazil the verb means “to drink, get drunk” in the north-east and, in informal speech, “to be jealous”.^[2][12][11] A Portuguese dialect survey recorded it for itching.^[13]

Timeline

• 13th century – roer in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[6][2][3]
• 14th century – the spelling rroe.^[2]
• c. 1430 – roer in the Horto do Esposo.^[14]
• 1525 – first record of the derivative roedor.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses roer with Latin rodo.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa records the metaphorical sense “to speak ill of”.^[8]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives the sense “to torment” and the phrase estar roendo cadeados.^[9]
• 1813 – Morais has roer cadeados and roer “to slander”.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To gnaw, to cut or grind with the teeth: O coelho roía uma cenoura.^[2][16][1]
2. (transitive) To destroy slowly and steadily; to wear away, corroer: O mar rói as rochas da costa.^[2][16]
3. (transitive) To chafe, make sore by rubbing.^[2][17]
4. (figurative) To wear down little by little; to undermine, minar.^[2][11]
5. (figurative) To torment, trouble;^[2][18][19] roer-se to be consumed by envy, anger or jealousy.^[2][18][19]
6. (figurative) To speak ill of, maldizer.^[2][11]
7. (figurative) To brood over; remoer.^[2][11]
8. (north-eastern Brazil, informal) To drink, get drunk.^[2][12]
9. (Brazil, informal) To be jealous.^[11]

Word family

• roedor
• roedura
• roedeira

Related words

• corroer
• corrosivo
• roaz
• rilhar
• Latin rōdō
• Spanish roer

Usage notes

Roer a corda means to break a promise or a contract, and duro de roer “hard to gnaw” is said of what is difficult to bear or to deal with.^{[18][19][2][20]}

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 i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. roer
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. roer
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7358
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c 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. roer
7. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. roer
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. roer
9. ^ 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. roer
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 39
11. ^ a b c d e f 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. roer
12. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. roer
13. ^ 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. roer
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. roer
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. roer
16. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. roer
17. ^ 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. roer
18. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. roer
19. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8156
20. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. roer