soprar

Forms

soprar (first-person singular present sopro, first-person singular preterite soprei, past participle soprado)^[1] Houaiss records soprar and the form soplam “they blow” in the 14th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sufflō (“to blow, puff up, inflate”), written Old Galician-Portuguese soprar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes and Aurélio start instead from Vulgar Latin *supplō, a Vulgar Latin form beside the classical verb, and Wiktionary gives both explanations, calling the word probably semi-learned if it comes straight from the classical form.^[5][6][1]

The same word is Galician soprar and Spanish soplar; Italian soffiare, French souffler and Romanian sufla keep the /f/ of the Latin.^[7][1] Corominas explains the /p/ as a sound change shared by Spanish, Portuguese and several Italian dialects, which also shows in the wavering between ⟨suffl-⟩ and ⟨suppl-⟩ in other Romance words of the same family.^[8]

The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under”) and flō (“to blow”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 14th century from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, with the spellings soprar and soplam.^[2] Lorenzo's chronology cites the noun sopro from the medieval Soliloquio: o bafo nem o vento nem o sopro nõ o derrama “neither breath nor wind nor puff scatters it”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries give the plain sense, Latin flo “to blow” (Barbosa 1611, Pereira 1697).^[11][12] Bluteau sends the reader to assoprar and adds the figurative sopralhe a ventura “fortune blows on him”, that is, things go well for him, quoting the Monarchia Lusitana;^[13][14] Morais repeats it in 1789.^[13][14]

Silva Bastos (1912) already lists blowing out a light, whispering, prompting, and removing pieces in draughts and chess.^[3] Houaiss adds playing a wind instrument, inflating a balloon, stirring up discord in secret, and prompting a schoolmate in a test.^[2] Priberam records the informal “to inform on someone”, which Houaiss gives under assoprar as Portuguese criminal slang.^[15][16] Macanese has suprâ.^[1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records, soprar and soplam.^[2]
• 15th century – the variant asoprar (assoprar).^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa translates Soprar as Latin flo.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the figurative sopralhe a ventura.^[13]
• 1734 – Feijó gives soprar and assoprar as alternatives.^[17]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos lists the senses “to whisper”, “to prompt” and a move in draughts and chess.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To blow: to send out air through the mouth or nose, or direct it onto something: Soprou a sopa para arrefecer.^[2][6]
2. To move, put out or fan something by blowing: to blow out a candle, blow dust away, or blow on embers to revive them.^[2][18]
3. To inflate by blowing; to blow into a wind instrument.^[2][4]
4. (of wind) To blow; to stir something as wind does.^[2][19]
5. (figurative) To whisper something to someone; to prompt an answer in secret.^[2][15]
6. (figurative) To favour; to suggest or stir up something underhand.^[2][19]
7. In draughts, to take an opponent's piece.^[2][3]
8. (informal) To inform on someone.^[15][16]

Word family

• sopro
• assoprar

Related words

• Latin sufflō
• Galician soprar
• Spanish soplar

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 k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. soprar
3. ^ a b c d Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. soprar
4. ^ 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. soprar
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. soprar
6. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. soprar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. sufflare
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 305
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sufflō
10. ^ 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. sopro
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. soprar
12. ^ 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. soprar
13. ^ 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. soprar
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, 419
15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. soprar
16. ^ a b c Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. assoprar
17. ^ 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. soprar
18. ^ 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. soprar
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8628