sugerir

Forms

sugerir (first-person singular present sugiro, third-person singular present sugere, first-person singular preterite sugeri, past participle sugerido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin suggerō (“to put under; to supply; to prompt”).^[2][3][4][1] Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word.^[4] The Latin verb is a compound of sub- (“under”) and gerō (“to carry, bear”).^[2][5][1] De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *ges-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵ-es- (“to carry”).^[6]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Spanish sugerir, Galician suxerir, Catalan suggerir, Italian suggerire and French suggérer.^[1] Corominas dates the Spanish verb to 1685.^[7] The French verb is first recorded around 1380 and took its present form in 1403.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to between 1635 and 1688, in Fernão de Queirós's life of Brother Pedro de Basto.^[2] Bluteau quotes the same work for the sense “to prompt (a thought)”: Sugere sutilmente pensamentos levantados “he subtly prompts lofty thoughts”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defines the verb as “to bring to mind; to inspire; to warn; to remind”, and Morais (1789) gives the same senses, with sugerir máos conselhos “to suggest bad counsel” and elle me sugeriu a reposta “he prompted the answer to me”.^[9][10] The original Caldas Aulete adds “to say in a low voice or in secret” and “to bring about, provoke”, as of a church interior that rouses wonder.^[11] In modern use the main senses are “to propose (an idea) for someone to accept or not”, “to hint, imply” and “to be a sign of”.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 1635–1688 – first record, in Queirós's life of Brother Basto.^[2][9]
• 1600s – Cunha's century for the first record.^[3]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau enters sugerir “to bring to mind, inspire”.^[9]
• 1755 – Folqman glosses it with Latin suggerere.^[13]
• 1772 – the participle sugerida in a private letter.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais defines it “to bring to mind, remind, inspire, warn”.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To suggest or propose: to put forward an idea or plan for someone to consider: A professora sugeriu um passeio ao museu.^[2][12][15]
2. To recommend someone or something for a purpose.^[12]
3. To hint or imply: to make someone think something without saying it fully or plainly (insinuar).^[2][12]
4. To bring an idea or feeling to mind by association: O mar sugeria-lhe liberdade.^[2][15]
5. To be the cause of; to arouse, provoke (a feeling).^[2][12][16]
6. To be a sign of; to indicate.^[2]
7. To offer (help and the like) to someone.^[2]

Related words

• sugestão
• sugestivo
• gerir
• gesto
• Latin suggerō
• Spanish sugerir

Usage notes

It is conjugated like aderir: sugiro, sugere.^[16][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. sugerir
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sugerir
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sugerir
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sugerir
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. suggérer
9. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sugerir
10. ^ 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, 428
11. ^ 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. sugerir
12. ^ 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. sugerir
13. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sugerir
14. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. sugerir
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sugerir
16. ^ a b 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. sugerir