tentar

Forms

tentar (first-person singular present tento, first-person singular preterite tentei, past participle tentado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote tentar, temptar and teptar, and 15th-century texts have tenptarmos beside tentemos.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin temptō (“to touch, feel; to test”), written Old Galician-Portuguese tentar in the oldest texts.^[3][4][1] Houaiss notes that the Latin spelling ⟨tempto⟩ is older and better attested, and that ⟨tento⟩ probably reflects the popular pronunciation.^[3] The Latin verb was also confused with tentō (“to shake, disturb”), so that the two can rarely be told apart.^[3][5] Nascentes (1955) cites older scholars who took the word for a frequentative of teneō (“to hold”), but Meyer-Lübke derived it from the same Latin verb.^[6]

The same Latin word is Galician tentar, Spanish tentar, Catalan temptar, French tenter and Italian tentare.^[7] The Spanish verb is recorded from Berceo, and the future Mozarabic temtaráy (“I will try”) is found in a kharja of the 11th or 12th century.^[8]

De Vaan explains the Latin verb as an iterative built on a past participle *tempto-, from a root Proto-Indo-European *temp- (“to stretch”), and finds a link with a root “to shake violently” less likely.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A charter of 1228 has este meu feyto quiser tentar ou romper “should want to challenge or break this deed of mine”, and one of 1271 teptar de britar esta carta “try to break this charter”.^[2] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the verb is used of the Devil tempting people to sin (do demo que, por tentar, a cuydou vencer).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The medieval language already had the senses “try, attempt”, “tempt to sin” and, in the satirical cantigas, “provoke”.^[2][10] Houaiss dates the reflexive sense “let oneself be tempted” to the 13th century and “strive for” to the 15th.^[3] Bluteau (1712–1728) gives first the sense “urge someone to do wrong”, while Morais (1789) adds “feel, test”, “undertake” and “attack a fortress to see whether it can be taken”.^[11][12] A bullfighting sense, “test young bulls”, appears in 1899, from the noun tenta.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1228 – tentar ou romper in a charter.^[2]
• 1271 – the spelling teptar in a charter.^[2]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use the verb for the Devil's temptations.^[2]
• 14th century – the forms temtou and teptar.^[3]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) uses the verb.^[13]
• 1542 – a private letter has the form tẽto.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses tentar with the Latin conor and tento.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa has Tentar, ou experimentar.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais lists the senses “induce to do wrong”, “test” and “undertake”.^[12]
• 1899 – first date of the sense “test young bulls”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To try to obtain something; to work towards it: Tentou durante anos um lugar na universidade.^[3][17]
2. To strive for, seek: tentar um acordo.^[3][17]
3. To attempt, undertake, carry out.^[3][18]
4. To test, try out: Tentei a porta, mas estava trancada.^[3][19]
5. To take up or practise (an activity) as an experiment.^[3]
6. To make someone want something; to tempt.^[3][1]
7. To urge or lure someone into wrongdoing;^[3][20] (religion) to incite to sin.^[3][20]
8. (reflexive) To be tempted, to feel strongly drawn to something.^[3][18]
9. (reflexive) To risk oneself, to venture into something.^[3][18]
10. To sound out, probe: tentar a fundura do poço.^[3][21]
11. (law) To bring (an action) before a court: tentar uma ação contra a empresa.^[3][19]
12. (bullfighting) To test young bulls for their courage.^[3][18]

Word family

• tenta
• tentação
• tentador

Related words

• Latin temptō
• Spanish tentar

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 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. tentar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tentar
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tentar
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. tenter
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 490
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8633
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 465
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. tentar
11. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tentar
12. ^ 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, 452
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tentar
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. tentar
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tentar
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tentar
17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tentar
18. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. tentar
19. ^ 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. tentar
20. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8904
21. ^ 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. tentar