saber

Forms

saber (first-person singular present sei, first-person singular preterite soube, past participle sabido)^[1] The cantigas already have the irregular present sei “I know” and the preterite soubi or soube, with the subjunctive sábia, spelt sabha in the Italian copies.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sapiō (“to taste; to be wise, to know”), written Old Galician-Portuguese saber in the oldest texts.^[4][5][1] In Latin the verb meant first “to have a taste” or “to perceive by taste”, and figuratively “to be sensible, to understand”, which led to “to know”.^[4][5][6] In this sense it replaced sciō (“to know”) in all the Romance languages except Romanian and Sardinian.^[6]

The same Latin word is Galician saber, Spanish saber, Catalan saber, Occitan saber, French savoir and Italian sapere.^[7][1]

The Latin verb goes back to *sapjō, from *seh₁p-.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Indo-European present *sh₁p-i- “to notice”, but notes that the laryngeal in the root is uncertain.^[8]

The present Old Galician-Portuguese sei reflects an older first person ending in /-ajo/, as in other Romance languages, of uncertain origin, and the subjunctive Old Galician-Portuguese saiba shows the /j/ of the Latin subjunctive moved into the first syllable.^[1] The glossary of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda explains that present as a shortened Old Galician-Portuguese saibo.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to 991 with the form sabere, from a Latin charter edited by Machado; the vernacular saber is recorded from the 13th century.^[4] In the cantigas of the troubadours it means “to know, to be aware of”, as in Bernal de Bonaval's de quantas sei “of all the women I know”.^[9][2] The same poems already use the infinitive as a noun, a meu saber “to my knowledge, in my opinion”, and the verb in the old sense “to have a taste”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Medieval Galician-Portuguese used saber with an infinitive for “to know how to”, and in many fixed phrases of the lyric such as ben o sabe Deus “God knows it well”.^[3][2] Houaiss dates the sense “to taste of” to the years 1562–1575 and the noun “learning, knowledge” to the 13th century.^[4] Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as “to have news” and “to possess a science”, and Morais (1789) adds saber de cor “to know by heart” and saber viver “to know how to live”.^[10][11]

The sense “to taste” is now mainly European: in Portugal sabe bem means “it tastes good”, and saber a “to taste of”.^[1][12] In Rio Grande do Sul the verb also means “to be in the habit of”.^[13]

Through the pidgin Portuguese of Macao the word reached Chinese Pidgin English as savvy; it is also Kabuverdianu sabe.^[1]

Timeline

• 991 – a Latin charter has sabere.^[4]
• 13th century – saber in Galician-Portuguese texts, as a verb and as a noun.^[4][3]
• 14th century – the Trasladação de S. Nicolau (witness of 1301–1400) uses the verb.^[14]
• 1562–1575 – first record of the sense “to taste of”.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary translates Saber by Latin scio.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists saber de certeza and fazer a saber.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records saber de cor and saber viver.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To know, to be informed of or aware of something: Já sabes a notícia?^[4][17][1]
2. To have learnt a subject or a skill: Ela sabe alemão.^[4][18]
3. To be sure of; to foresee or sense that something will happen.^[4][19]
4. (with an infinitive) To know how to, to be able to: Ele não sabe nadar.^[4][1]
5. To know by heart, to have memorised.^[4][20]
6. To find out, to learn of something; to ask in order to know.^[4][1]
7. To consider or judge someone to be something.^[4][20]
8. (chiefly Portugal) To taste of; to taste good or bad: A sopa sabe a alho.^[4][1][20]

Noun

1. knowledge, learning: the sum of what one has learnt.^[4][21]
2. Good sense, prudence; the practical wisdom of experience.^[4][18]

Word family

• sabedor
• sabedoria
• sabido

Related words

• sabor
• saibo
• Latin sapiō
• Galician saber

Usage notes

A saber means “namely”, introducing a list, and dar a saber “to make known”.^[4] Houaiss also records the Rio de Janeiro use of saber for the graduation ring of primary-school teachers.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. saber
3. ^ a b c d 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. saber
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. saber
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. saber
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 111
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7586
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. saber
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. saber
11. ^ 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, 362
12. ^ 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. saber
13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. saber
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. saber
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. saber
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. saber
17. ^ 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. saber
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. saber
19. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. saber
20. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8213
21. ^ 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. saber