sorrir

Forms

sorrir (first-person singular present sorrio, first-person singular preterite sorri, past participle sorrido)^[1] Houaiss records sorrio, sorriir and surrijr in the 14th century and soorrimdo-sse in the 15th;^[1][2] Cunha adds surir and subrijr from the 14th century.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin subrīdeō (“to smile”), written Old Galician-Portuguese sorriir in the oldest texts.^[3][1][2][5] Wiktionary puts a Vulgar Latin infinitive *subrīdīre between them, moved to the -ire conjugation like rir.^[1] Cunha starts from a Latin form already spelt with ⟨rr⟩ for ⟨br⟩.^[4]

The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under”) and rīdeō (“to laugh”).^[1][6] Its descendants include Galician sorrir, Spanish sonreír, Catalan somriure, French sourire and Italian sorridere.^[1][7]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) defines the verb, also used reflexively as sorrir-se, as opening the mouth a little and laughing with composure.^[8] Modern dictionaries add figurative senses: to look bright and happy, to appeal to someone, and of fortune, to be favourable.^[3][5][9]

The noun sorriso is dated by Houaiss to 1720, in Bluteau, but only to 1813 by Cunha, who dates the adjective sorridente to 1836.^[10][4]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, as sorriir, surrijr and subrijr.^[3][4]
• 15th century – the spelling soorrimdo-sse.^[3]
• 1513 – the Livro dos Mártires has the verb.^[11]
• 1720 – first record of the noun sorriso, in Bluteau.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais defines sorrir and sorrir-se.^[8]
• 1836 – first record of sorridente, in Constâncio's dictionary.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To smile: to laugh without sound, with a slight movement of the lips; also reflexive: Sorriu quando me viu.^{[3][12][9][1]}
2. To look pleased, to rejoice.^[3][12]
3. To smile at someone (sorrir a, sorrir para): Sorriu para a criança.^[3][12][5]
4. (figurative) To appeal to, to please: A ideia de umas férias sorria-lhe.^[3][5][9]
5. (figurative) To be favourable: Por fim a sorte sorriu-lhe.^[3][5][9]
6. (figurative) To make fun of (sorrir de), to mock.^[3]

Related words

• rir
• sorriso
• sorridente
• riso
• Latin subrīdeō
• Galician sorrir
• Spanish sonreír

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sorrir
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sorrir
4. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. rir
5. ^ a b c d e 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. sorrir
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. subrīdeō
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 478
8. ^ 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, 420
9. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. sorrir
10. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sorriso
11. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. sorrir
12. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sorrir