sonhar

Forms

sonhar (first-person singular present sonho, first-person singular preterite sonhei, past participle sonhado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote sonnar (sonnou in the 13th century) beside sonhar, recorded from the 14th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin somniō (“to dream”), written Old Galician-Portuguese sonnar and Old Galician-Portuguese sonhar in the old language.^[2][3][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician soñar, Spanish soñar, Catalan somiar, Occitan somiar, French songer and Italian sognare.^[4][1]

The Latin verb is formed from somnium (“a dream”).^[1] The noun sonho continues that Latin noun, and sono “sleep” continues somnus (“sleep”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century, with the form sonnou “dreamed”.^[2][3] A cantiga has ca sonharedes nos dados enton “for then you will dream of the dice”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries give only the literal sense: Cardoso (1569) and Pereira (1697) gloss it with Latin somnio, and Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as having a dream while asleep.^[6][7][8] Morais (1813) adds sonhar com alguém, to dream of a person, and sonhar em, to keep thinking of something.^[9] Sonhador “dreamer” is recorded from 1813.^[3]

The figurative senses, indulging in fantasies, longing for something and imagining it possible, are the main additions of the modern dictionaries.^[2][10] The infinitive is also used as a noun, o sonhar.^[11][12] The word passed into Macanese as sunhâ.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, with the form sonnou.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the spelling sonhar.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin somnio.^[6]
• 1611 – Barbosa quotes Terence, Cicero and Columella for the Latin verb.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as having a dream while asleep.^[8]
• 1813 – Morais records sonhar com and sonhar em; first record of sonhador.^[9][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dream; to have dreams while asleep; to see in a dream;^[2][10][1] sonhar com “to dream about”: Sonhei com o meu avô.^[2][10][1]
2. To have nightmares or delusions; to imagine things.^[2]
3. (figurative) To daydream, to indulge in fantasies.^[2][10]
4. (figurative, reflexive) To imagine oneself as.^[2]
5. (figurative) To long for, to aspire to (sonhar com, sonhar em): Sonha em ter uma casa no campo.^[2][1]
6. (figurative) To imagine (something) possible, to foresee.^[2][14]

Word family

• sonhador

Related words

• sonho
• sono
• Latin somnio
• Galician soñar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sonhar
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sono
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. somniare
5. ^ 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. sonhar
6. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sonhar
7. ^ 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. sonhar
8. ^ 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. sonhar
9. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 722
10. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sonhar
11. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. sonhar
12. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. sonhar
13. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sonhar
14. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8621