sair

Forms

sair (first-person singular present saio, first-person singular preterite saí, past participle saído)^[1] Houaiss records the 13th-century forms sai and sayr, ssajsse (1346), sayades (1390) and sair in the 14th century.^[2] Cunha also dates sayr and sahida to the 13th century.^[3] Old Galician-Portuguese had the third person sal and the future salrá, salrrá; the form seir is called a Galicianism by Michaëlis.^[4] Williams explains sal and salrei as the regular outcomes of the Latin forms, later replaced by sai and sairei.^[5] The spelling sahir was usual until the 19th century: Bluteau and Feijó head the verb so, and Vieira's dictionary (1871–1874) calls sair the more usual form.^[6][7][8]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin saliō (“to leap, jump”), written Old Galician-Portuguese sair in the oldest texts.^[2][3][9][1] The Latin /l/ between vowels was lost, as in dor from Latin dolor.^[10] Nascentes explains the change of meaning simply: whoever jumps leaves the place where he is.^[9] Corominas notes that the sense “to go out” is already usual in the oldest Spanish texts, and that the Latin verb survived with this meaning only in Portuguese, Spanish and some dialects of southern France and Piedmont.^[11]

The same Latin word is Galician saír, Spanish salir, Catalan sallir (“to gush”), French saillir (“to jut out”), Italian salire (“to go up”) and Romanian sări (“to jump”).^[12][13][1]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *sal-je- (“to jump”) and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂l-ie/o-, comparing Ancient Greek ἅλλομαι (hállomai, “to leap”).^[14] Wiktionary gives *sl̥-ye-, but calls the Latin verb's origin uncertain.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][3] In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda it means “to go away”, and in the cantigas d'amigo sair o prazo “the term runs out” means “to end”.^[4] The satirical cantigas use it of a dog que sal de grade “that comes out of its kennel”, and Afonso X of boys who sairon aos mesquinhos “fell upon the poor wretches”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb also meant “to end” and “to turn out”: sair a ben “to come out well” is in the cantigas.^[4][15] Houaiss dates the sense “to flow, issue” to the 14th century.^[2] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders sair with Latin exeo “I go out”.^[16]

Later senses include “to be published”, recorded by Figueiredo and Silva Bastos, “to graduate”, “to take after” (sair ao pai) and, in Brazil, “to go out with” someone and “to cost” (sair por).^[2][17][1] Gaúcho speech has many phrases with the verb, such as sair campo fora “to go away”.^[18] Macanese has the descendant sai.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, as sai and sayr.^[2][3]
• 13th century – the forms sal and salrrá in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda.^[4]
• 14th century – the spelling sair and the sense “to flow out”.^[2]
• 1416 – sair in the Vida de Santo Aleixo.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses sair with Latin exeo.^[16]
• 1712 – Bluteau heads the verb sahir.^[6]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira calls sair the more usual spelling.^[8]
• 1881 – first record of ressair.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go out, to leave, to exit (a place): Saiu do escritório sem dizer nada.^[2][20][1]
2. To go out for entertainment or exercise: Ao sábado saímos para dançar.^[2][1]
3. To go out (with someone), to have a relationship: Ela sai com o vizinho.^[2][1]
4. To depart, set off: O autocarro sai às oito.^[2][21]
5. (of things) To come out, issue, flow: Saía água da torneira.^[2][20]
6. To appear, come up; to sprout: O sol saiu depois da chuva.^[2][22]
7. To come from, descend from.^[2][20]
8. (with a) To take after someone: Saiu à mãe.^[2][23][1]
9. To leave a job, group or position: Saiu da empresa em março.^[2][1]
10. To get out of (a difficulty or state); to recover from.^[2][20]
11. To come loose, come off;^[2][20] (of a stain) to go away.^[2][20]
12. To be published or released: O livro sai no outono.^[2][1]
13. To turn out, result: O bolo saiu queimado;^[2][1] sair-se to fare (well or badly).^[2][1]
14. To be drawn or chosen (in a lottery, a list).^[2][23]
15. To graduate (from a school).^[2][20]
16. To stand out, project.^[2][22]
17. To charge, attack.^[2][21]
18. (Brazil) To cost (sair por).^[1]
19. (Brazil, card games) To lead.^[1]

Word family

• saída
• saído
• saimento
• ressair

Related words

• saliência
• saliente
• Latin saliō
• Galician saír
• Spanish salir

Usage notes

Sair à francesa is to leave without saying goodbye, and sair do armário “to come out of the closet”.^[2][1] The Portuguese verb means “to go out”, while Italian salire means “to go up”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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 q r s t u v w x y z 27 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sair
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sair
4. ^ 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. sair
5. ^ Williams, Edwin B. (1938), From Latin to Portuguese: Historical Phonology and Morphology of the Portuguese Language, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. § 197
6. ^ 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. sahir
7. ^ 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. sahir
8. ^ a b 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, 377
9. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sair
10. ^ Williams, Edwin B. (1938), From Latin to Portuguese: Historical Phonology and Morphology of the Portuguese Language, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. § 75
11. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 139
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7540
13. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. salire
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ 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. sair
16. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sair
17. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. sair
18. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. sair
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. sair
20. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sair
21. ^ 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. sair
22. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. sair
23. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8243