suar

Forms

suar (first-person singular present suo, first-person singular preterite suei, past participle suado)^[1] Houaiss records the 14th-century spelling ssuar.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sūdō (“to sweat”), written Old Galician-Portuguese suar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician suar, Catalan suar, French suer, Italian sudare and Spanish sudar.^[5][1] The Latin -d- between vowels has disappeared in Portuguese, Galician, Catalan and Old Spanish suar.^[6] García de Diego takes the Spanish form that kept it for a learned one.^[6]

According to de Vaan the Latin verb was formed from a noun Proto-Indo-European *swoyd-o- (“sweat”), which survives in Indo-Iranian and Germanic; sūdor (“sweat”), the source of suor, belongs with it.^[7] The root is *sweyd- (“to sweat”), also behind Ancient Greek ἱδρώς (hidrṓs, “sweat”), Sanskrit स्वेदते (svedate, “to sweat”) and Old English swāt (“sweat”), the ancestor of the English word sweat.^[7][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 14th century, spelt ssuar.^[2] Lorenzo quotes a 14th-century Galician chronicle in which all the men ran with water all day from the great sweat they were in (da grã sudar que faziã), with a noun of the Spanish form.^[9] In Portugal the corpus record begins with the Horto do Esposo, copied about 1390–1437.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb already meant both “to sweat” and, figuratively, “to toil”, and both senses passed to Portuguese.^[2][11] Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 notes the figurative Latin use “to labour hard”, quoting Terence, and Bluteau (1712) quotes Livy for statues that “sweated blood”.^[12][13] Vieira (1871–1874) adds walls and stones that give out moisture and the turn of phrase suar sangue, said of Christ in the garden.^[14]

Modern Portuguese uses the verb for anything that oozes moisture, such as a cold bottle or a damp wall, and for winning something by hard work, as in dinheiro suado “hard-earned money”.^[2][15][1] Fixed phrases include suar frio “to break out in a cold sweat”, suar as estopinhas “to make a huge effort” and dar que suar “to give a lot of trouble”.^[2][16][1] The verb was borrowed as suar by the Malay of Manado and the North Moluccas.^[1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, spelt ssuar.^[2][3]
• 14th century – da grã sudar in a Galician chronicle.^[9]
• c. 1430 – first record in the CTA corpus, in the Horto do Esposo.^[10]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it as Latin sudo.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa notes the figurative sense “to toil”.^[12]
• 1813 – first record of suarento.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To sweat, to perspire (transpirar): Com este calor toda a gente sua.^[2][15][1]
2. (transitive) To give out through the pores: suar sangue.^[2][18]
3. To give out moisture; to ooze or drip: As paredes da cave suavam.^[2][15][1]
4. (figurative) To work very hard; to strive for something: Suou muito para acabar o curso.^[2][19][1]
5. (figurative) To get something at the cost of great effort.^[2][19]
6. (transitive) To soak with sweat: suar a camisa.^[2][20][1]
7. (figurative) To feel discomfort or fatigue caused by something unpleasant.^[2]
8. (figurative) To show in abundance: O jardim suava flores.^[2]

Word family

• suado
• suada
• suadela
• suadouro
• suarento
• ressuar
• dessuar
• sueira

Related words

• suador
• suor
• sudário
• sudorífero
• sudoríparo
• transudar
• Latin sūdō
• Galician suar
• Spanish sudar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. suar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. suar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. suar
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8431
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. suer
9. ^ a b 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. sudar
10. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. suar
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sūdō
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. suar
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. suar
14. ^ 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, 606
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. suar
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8654
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. suar
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. suar
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. suar
20. ^ 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. suar