salvar

Forms

salvar (first-person singular present salvo, first-person singular preterite salvei, past participle salvado, short past participle salvo)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese also had asalvar and the spelling saluar.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin salvō (“to save”), written Old Galician-Portuguese salvar in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1][5] Houaiss labels the Latin verb as Church Latin, Aurélio and Nascentes as Late Latin.^[2][6][5] It is formed on the adjective salvus (“safe, unharmed”), which in Church Latin took the moral sense “saved from evil by the Saviour”.^[7][1]

The same Latin verb is Spanish salvar, Catalan salvar, French sauver and Italian salvare.^[8][9][10] The adjective goes back to *salawos and *solh₂- (“whole”); de Vaan reconstructs *slH-u- (“whole”), and the word is akin to salūs (“well-being, safety”).^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb appears in the 13th-century cantigas and the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[12][2] Besides “to save, deliver from danger” and the religious sense (como Jesu-Cristo, estand' ena cruz, salvou un ladron “how Jesus Christ on the cross saved a thief”), the cantigas often use it for “to clear (someone) of a charge, to justify”: Pero da Ponte writes ca salvar-se pod' ela ben “for she can well clear herself”.^[12][13] Viterbo found salvar very frequent in the charters of the 11th to 13th centuries for a summary legal proof of one's innocence.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The greeting Deus te salve “God save you” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria gave the sense “to greet”, which Houaiss dates to the 14th century and Nascentes derives from that formula.^[12][2][5] Bluteau (1712–1728) still records salvar “to greet”, mostly in salve Deos, and refers “to salute with artillery” to salva, the salvo of guns;^[15][16] Morais (1789) has the navy sense o navio salvou a fortaleza and the sense “to clear (an obstacle), jump over”.^[15][16] Regional Portuguese keeps “to jump over” and “to greet”, and in Brazil “to greet by raising one's hat” is recorded as an archaism.^[17]

In computing the verb means “to save (a file)”, the same as gravar;^[2][18][1] Wiktionary labels this sense Brazilian.^[2][18][1]

Timeline

• 11th–13th centuries – Viterbo finds salvar “to prove one's innocence” in the charters.^[14]
• 13th century – first records, in the cantigas and the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][4][12]
• 14th century – Houaiss's first date for the sense “to greet”.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses it with Latin servo and libero.^[19]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records salvar “to greet”.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais has “to salute with guns” and “to jump over”.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To save, rescue (someone or something) from danger, ruin or death;^[2][6][20] (reflexive) to escape: Os pescadores salvaram dois banhistas.^[2][6][20]
2. To free, redeem (from captivity).^[2]
3. To preserve, keep safe or intact: salvar as aparências.^[2][6][21]
4. (reflexive) To take shelter.^[2][21]
5. (religion) To save from damnation;^[2][22][1] (reflexive) to attain eternal salvation.^[2][22][1]
6. To excuse, justify (a mistake).^[2]
7. To clear (a distance or obstacle) at a bound.^[2][18]
8. To greet, salute;^[2][18][1] (also intransitive) to fire a salvo in salute.^[2][18][1]
9. (computing, chiefly Brazil) To save (a file); the same as gravar.^[2][1][18]

Word family

• salvado
• salvamento
• salvante
• salva
• salva-vidas
• ressalvar
• ressalva

Related words

• salvação
• salvador
• salvo
• salvaguarda
• Latin salvus
• Spanish salvar

Usage notes

The phrase salve-se quem puder “every man for himself” is built on the verb.^[1][23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. salvar
3. ^ 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. salvar
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. salvar
5. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. salvar
6. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. salvar
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. sauf
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. salvare
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. salvar
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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. salvar
13. ^ 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. salvar
14. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 301
15. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. salvar
16. ^ a b c 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, 371
17. ^ 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. salvar
18. ^ a b c d e f Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. salvar
19. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. salvar
20. ^ 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. salvar
21. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8269
22. ^ 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. salvar
23. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. salvar