surgir

Forms

surgir (first-person singular present surjo, first-person singular preterite surgi, past participle surgido)^[1]

Etymology

In its first, nautical senses, “to lie at anchor, to put into port, to drop anchor”, it is borrowed from Catalan sorgir, recorded in the 13th century, which is from Latin surgō (“to rise, get up”), according to Houaiss.^[2] The modern senses of rising and appearing, he says, were taken later directly from Latin by the learned route.^[2] The REW also derives the Portuguese and Spanish verb in the sense “to land” from Catalan.^[3] Corominas gives the same account for the Spanish verb surgir, whose nautical sense is recorded in the early 15th century and whose sense “to appear” was taken from Latin only recently.^[4][5] Wiktionary and Nascentes derive the word directly from the Latin verb, Nascentes by a semi-learned route.^[1][6]

According to Corominas, cited by Houaiss, the nautical sense began in Latin phrases saying that a ship “stands up” in the harbour, hence “the ship lies still, lies at anchor”, and then “the ship drops anchor”.^[2][5] Houaiss traces a further sense “to put to sea” to Old French sourdre.^[2]

The Latin verb is contracted from subrigō, surrigō, from sub- (“up from below”) and regō (“to guide, rule”).^[1][2][7] Its inherited outcomes include Italian sorgere and French sourdre, and Portuguese surdir is an adaptation of the French verb.^[3][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 15th century and says that at first it was used only in seafaring, of a ship anchoring or reaching port.^[2] Morais quotes Barros for ships that surgirão diante da povoação “anchored before the town”, and Aurélio quotes Camões: Surge diante a frota lusitana “the Portuguese fleet comes to anchor in front”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

In the dictionaries of the 18th century the word is still a sailors' term: Bluteau defines it as to take port, and Feijó as the navigators' word for putting into port.^[12][13] Morais (1789) adds “to rise, come up, as from a dive” and the transitive surgir duas amarras, to drop two anchors.^[10] Vieira still heads the word as a naval term.^[14]

The general senses then took over: to emerge from the water, to rise up, to come into view, to appear suddenly, to come into being and to occur to the mind.^[2][11] Aurélio marks the nautical sense “to arrive by sea, anchor” as old.^[15]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records, in the nautical sense.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as a nautical term, to take port.^[12]
• 1734 – Feijó gives it as the sailors' word for putting into port.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais adds the sense “to rise, come up”.^[10]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira heads it as a naval term.^[14]
• 1975 – Aurélio marks the sense “to anchor” as old.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To appear, come into view; to appear suddenly.^[2][11][1]
2. To arise, come into being, happen: new problems arose.^[2][1]
3. To rise up, stand out; to rise from the depths to the surface; to emerge.^[2][11]
4. Of the sun or plants: to come up, dawn (nascer, despontar).^[2][11]
5. To come to mind: of a thought or memory.^[2][16]
6. To recover from an illness; to wake from torpor.^[2][17]
7. (nautical, dated) To arrive by sea; to drop anchor (ancorar).^[2][11]

Word family

• surgimento

Related words

• ressurgir
• insurgir
• surdir
• Latin surgō
• Catalan sorgir
• Spanish surgir

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 l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. surgir
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 339
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. surgir
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. surgir
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. surgō
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. sourdre
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. surdir
10. ^ a b c 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, 433
11. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. surgir
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. surgir
13. ^ a b 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. surgir
14. ^ a b 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, 636
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 1364
16. ^ 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. surgir
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. surgir