supor

Forms

supor (first-person singular present suponho, first-person singular preterite supus, past participle suposto)^[1] Houaiss records soposer in the 15th century, suppor in 1622–1682 and sopor in 1720.^[2] The spelling with -pp- lasted into the 19th century: Vieira (1871–1874) refers supor to suppor.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin suppōnō (“to put under; to substitute; to suppose”).^[2][4][5] Nascentes and Aurélio derive it through an intermediate Old Galician-Portuguese *supoer, with the loss of the Latin -n- between vowels, as in pôr.^[5][6] Cunha, however, dates the verb only to the 17th century.^[4] The sense “to assume” is already Medieval Latin: Niermeyer records the Medieval Latin verb as “to suppose, assume” beside “to pawn”.^[7]

The same Latin verb is Spanish suponer, Italian supporre, Old Occitan suponre and Romanian supune; the French supposer was remade after poser.^[8][9]

The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under”) and pōnō (“to put, place”).^[10][1] De Vaan explains the simple verb as *po-sine/o-, an old compound “to put down”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 15th century, from Cunha's medieval index, with the form soposer.^[2] Cunha's own first record, from the 17th century, has the sense “to put forward or allege a hypothesis; to conjecture, presume”.^[4] In the Post Scriptum letters the participle suposto appears in 1602.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss lists among the Latin senses “to put under”, “to substitute”, “to give as true what is not” and “to make a hypothesis”.^[2] Beside “to assume, presume”, the verb means “to presuppose, imply” (o efeito supõe a causa) and, now seldom, “to impute something to someone”.^[6][13][14] Porto Editora also has “to pass off as genuine, feign”.^[15] The participle suposto became an adjective “supposed” in the 16th century, and suposição is recorded in the 17th.^[4]

Timeline

• 15th century – soposer, the first record according to Houaiss.^[2]
• 16th century – first record of the adjective suposto.^[4]
• 1602 – Suposto in a private letter.^[12]
• 17th century – Cunha's first record of supor and of suposição.^[4]
• 1622–1682 – the spelling suppor.^[2]
• 1720 – the spelling sopor.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To suppose or put forward as a hypothesis: suponhamos que chove amanhã.^[2][6][1]
2. To presume, conjecture or imagine: suponho que já saíram.^[6][16]
3. To presuppose; to imply as necessary.^[13][14][17]
4. To consider, judge (someone or oneself) to be something: supunha-se esperto.^[13][16]
5. (rare) To impute something to someone.^[6][13]
6. To pass off as genuine; to feign.^[15][14]

Word family

• suposição
• suposto

Related words

• pôr
• pressupor
• supositório
• Latin suppōnō
• Spanish suponer

Usage notes

Aulete and Priberam note that supor should not be confused with the noun sopor “deep sleep”.^[13][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. supor
3. ^ 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, 632
4. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. supor
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. supor
6. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. supor
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. supponere
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8469
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. supposer
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. suppōnō
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b 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. supor
13. ^ a b c d e 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. supor
14. ^ a b c 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. supor
15. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8735
16. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. supor
17. ^ 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. supor