suspender

Forms

suspender (first-person singular present suspendo, first-person singular preterite suspendi, past participle suspendido, short past participle suspenso)^[1] Houaiss records the participle sospesa in the 14th century, sospender in the 15th and suspender from 1567.^[2] Cunha also dates sospender to the 15th century.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin suspendō (“to hang up; to keep in suspense; to interrupt”), a Latin verb formed from sub- (“under”) and pendō (“to hang”).^[2][3][1][4] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing.^[1] The older spelling Old Galician-Portuguese sospender is recorded until the 16th century, when the present spelling appears.^[2]

The same Latin verb gave Spanish suspender, Catalan suspendre, French suspendre and Italian sospendere;^[5][1] García de Diego regards the Spanish verb as a learned word.^[5][1] In French the learned verb displaced the inherited Old French soupendre.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the verb to the 14th century from a medieval record of the participle sospesa, with the sense of hanging something up or leaving it hanging.^[2] Lorenzo's chronology has a Galician record of 1439, que lo sospende ata que su mercede lo exsamine “who suspends it until his grace examines it”, already in the sense of putting a matter off.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense “to hang, to hold up in the air” came first, and Bluteau (1712–1728) still gives it before the others, adding suspender o juizo “to suspend one's judgement”.^[8] Folqman (1755) records both “to lift up high” and “to suspend someone from his office”.^[9] Vieira (1871–1874) treats “to interrupt, not to continue” as figurative.^[10] Modern dictionaries add the suspension of a newspaper or of pupils as a punishment, and the sense “to hold someone spellbound”.^[2][11] In Rio Grande do Sul it can also mean “to steal” an animal or thing.^[12]

Timeline

• 1300s – the participle sospesa in a medieval text.^[2]
• 1400s – sospender.^[2][3]
• 1439 – sospende “puts off” in a Galician document.^[7]
• 1567 – first record of the spelling suspender.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro glosses it with Latin suspendo.^[13]
• 1734 – Feijó's spelling dictionary sets suspender against sospender.^[14]
• 1755 – Folqman adds the sense “to remove someone from his office”.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hang something up, or leave it hanging;^[2][15][1] (reflexive) to hang from something: Suspendemos a lanterna de uma trave.^[2][15][1]
2. To lift or raise; to hoist, as an anchor.^[2][16]
3. (reflexive) To stand in a very high place or on a slope.^[2][16]
4. (figurative) To hold someone spellbound; to enrapture.^[2][17]
5. To suspend someone from an office or post for a time, or from school as a punishment.^[2][17]
6. To interrupt something for a time or for good; to put off or cancel: Suspenderam o jogo por causa da chuva.^[2][18][1]
7. To forbid something for a time, such as the publication of a newspaper.^[2][11]

Related words

• suspensão
• suspenso
• suspensório
• pender

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. suspender
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. suspender
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. suspendere
6. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. suspendre
7. ^ 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. sospender
8. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. suspender
9. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. suspender
10. ^ 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, 641
11. ^ a b 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. suspender
12. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. suspender
13. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. suspender
14. ^ 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. suspender
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. suspender
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. suspender
17. ^ a b 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. suspender
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. suspender