segar

Forms

segar (first-person singular present sego, first-person singular preterite seguei, past participle segado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese texts write segar, seguar and ssegar.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin secō (“to cut”), written Old Galician-Portuguese segar in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] The Latin /k/ between vowels was voiced to /ɡ/.^[1] The verb is unrelated to secar “to dry”, which is from Latin siccō.^[1][5] In Medieval Latin the verb was already used of mowing and reaping, and was sometimes spelt with ⟨g⟩.^[6][7]

The same Latin verb is Galician segar, Spanish segar, Catalan segar, Occitan segar, Italian segare and French scier.^[8][9] The Spanish verb is recorded with ⟨g⟩ in a document of 972.^[10]

The Latin verb is from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”), and its cognates include Old Church Slavonic сѣщи (sěšti, “to cut”) and Old English saga (“saw”).^[1][11] De Vaan reconstructs a present *sekh₁-ie/o- “to cut off”.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1174 already has the verb, ferraginem segauerit “has reaped the fodder”.^[3] The first Galician-Portuguese records are of the 13th century, in a miracle of the Cantigas de Santa Maria about a farmer who was reaping on the feast of Saint Quiricus: un lavrador que andava segando en dia de San Quirez.^[3][2] The sense is “to cut grain with a sickle”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Charters of the 14th century speak of segar o pã “reaping the bread grain” and of sickles for reaping.^[3] Bluteau in 1712 gives the proverbs cevada grande, a outro dia segada and sega a sua avea, quem ganhar deseja.^[13] Morais in 1789 adds the sense “to cut”, with segar a garganta “to cut a throat”.^[14]

The figurative sense “to put an end to” appears in literary use, as when death is said to cut down young lives.^[15][2] Houaiss also records the sense “to cut into thin strips or slices”.^[2] In the dialects of northern Portugal the verb is used for cutting grass and for shredding cabbage for soup.^[16]

Timeline

• 1174 – a Latin charter has the form segauerit.^[3]
• 1200s – segando and seguar are recorded, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of a farmer reaping on a feast day.^[2][3]
• 1344 – the Crónica Geral of 1344 has mandoulhe segar o pã.^[3]
• 1364 – ojto ffojçes de ssegar pam “eight sickles for reaping grain” in a document.^[3]
• 1513 – the Livro dos Mártires has the verb.^[17]
• 1533 – first record of sega “reaping”.^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it as Latin meto.^[19]
• 1712 – Bluteau quotes two proverbs about reaping.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais adds the sense “to cut”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To reap or mow: to cut grain or grass with a sickle (foice) or similar tool; ceifar.^{[2][5][20][1]}
2. To cut into thin strips or slices.^[2][15]
3. (figurative) To put an end to; to cut short: segar uma vida.^[2][20][21]

Word family

• sega
• segador

Related words

• secção
• setor
• Galician segar

Usage notes

Segar sounds the same as cegar “to blind”, and the dictionaries warn against confusing the two.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. segar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. segar
4. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. segar
5. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. segar
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. secare
7. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. secare
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7764
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. secare
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 190
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. secō
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ 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. segar
14. ^ 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, 383
15. ^ a b c 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. segar
16. ^ 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. segar
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. segar
18. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sega
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. segar
20. ^ 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. segar
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. segar