sobrar

Forms

sobrar (first-person singular present sobro, first-person singular preterite sobrei, past participle sobrado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin superō (“to rise above, surmount; to overcome; to be left over”), written Old Galician-Portuguese sobrar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Aurélio calls it the popular outcome of the Latin verb, and Wiktionary gives superar as its learned doublet.^[4][1] The Latin verb is formed from superus (“upper, above”), from super (“above”).^[5][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician sobrar, Spanish sobrar, Catalan sobrar, Occitan sobrar, Old Italian soprare and Romanian supăra (“to annoy”).^[6][1] In Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese it came to mean “to be left over, to be superfluous”, and the noun sobra was derived from it.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The medieval sense is the Latin one, “to surpass, overcome, defeat”.^[3][8] The Crónica Geral says that a mosque sobraua et uençia de feyto et de grandeza todallas outras mesquitas “surpassed and outdid all the other mosques in workmanship and size”, a text Lorenzo dates to the 14th or 15th century.^[8] Other medieval texts have sobrarás a maa “you will overcome the bad (desire)” and sobrado em nas batalhas “beaten in battle”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From “to rise above” the verb took the sense “to be more than is needed, to be left over”, which Cunha also dates to the 14th century.^[3] Bluteau (1712–1728) gives it as “to be in excess”, with o que sobrar de dinheyro “whatever money is left over” and the waters that sobrão por cima da ponte “rise over the bridge”.^[9] Feijó (1734) equates it with sobejar.^[10] The physical sense “to stand higher than” lasted into the dictionaries of Morais and Vieira and survives as a rare use.^[11][12][2]

Brazilian Portuguese developed the informal senses “to be left out, overlooked” and sobrar para “to fall (unpleasantly) on someone”.^[2] In Rio Grande do Sul it can still mean “to surpass, outdo” someone.^[13]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records, with the sense “to surpass, overcome”.^[2][3]
• 14th or 15th century – sobraua in the Crónica Geral.^[8]
• 17th century – first record of the noun sobra.^[3]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses sobrar with Latin superabundo.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives “to be in excess, be left over”.^[9]
• 1734 – Feijó: sobrar, the same as sobejar.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be left, to remain after the rest is used or gone: da festa só sobraram copos sujos.^[2][4][1]
2. To be in excess, to be more than needed: sobra-lhe paciência.^[2][4][15]
3. To be more than enough, to suffice amply.^[2][4]
4. (rare) To stand higher than, overtop; sobrancear.^[2][4][15]
5. (intransitive) To be put aside, overlooked or left out.^[2][16]
6. (Brazil, informal) Of something unpleasant, to fall to someone: a culpa sobrou para o estagiário.^[2]

Word family

• sobra

Related words

• superar
• sobre
• sobrado
• Latin superō
• Galician sobrar

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 j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sobrar
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. sobrar
4. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sobrar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8458
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. superare
8. ^ 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. sobrar
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. sobrar
10. ^ a b 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. sobrar
11. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 707
12. ^ 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, 548
13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. sobrar
14. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sobrar
15. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8557
16. ^ 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. sobrar