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tirar

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word tirar

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s the cantigas More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin *tiro
Ultimate origin
Vulgar Latin *tīrō

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /t͡ʃiˈɾa(ʁ)/, [t͡ʃiˈɾa(h)][1]
  • São-Paulo: /t͡ʃiˈɾa(ɾ)/[1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /t͡ʃiˈɾa(ʁ)/, [t͡ʃiˈɾa(χ)][1]
  • Caipira: /t͡ʃiˈɾa(ɻ)/[1]

Forms

tirar (first-person singular present tiro, first-person singular preterite tirei, past participle tirado)[1]

Etymology

Its origin is obscure: Houaiss, Cunha, Nascentes, Aurélio and the DLP give it as unknown or uncertain.[2][3][4][5][6] In Wiktionary it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tīrō, a verb attested only in the Romance languages.[1] The same verb is Galician tirar, Spanish tirar, Catalan tirar, Occitan tirar, French tirer and Italian tirare, meaning “to pull” and “to shoot”; it is common to the Romance languages except Romanian, and very old in all of them.[7][8]

Diez proposed a Germanic origin, Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear”), and Wiktionary considers this the likeliest of the proposals;[9][1][10] Corominas thought it very doubtful.[9][1][10] Corominas suggested instead that the verb arose in Roman soldiers' slang from the Iranian word for “arrow”, as in Persian تیر (tīr), the Parthians being famous archers.[8][1] Wiktionary also lists Ancient Greek μάρτυς (mártus, “witness, martyr”), τείρω (teírō, “to wear out”) and Latin trahō (“to drag”) among the proposed sources.[1] Silva Bastos took it from Germanic and Vieira from the French verb, views of their time.[11][12] Nascentes noted that the old sense “to pull” survives in tirante.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 13th-century cantigas the verb means “to shoot” as well as “to remove”: Pero Garcia de Ambroa mocks the crossbowmen of the frontier, pero que cuidam que tiram mui bem “although they think they shoot very well”.[13][14] In the Crónica Troiana men pull a piece of a lance out of a wound, haul by ropes (tirauã por cordas) and row their ships out to sea.[15]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss records the senses “to tear out”, “to pull” and “to steal” in the 14th century, and an old sense “to defeat” that has not survived.[2] Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) render the verb by the Latin verbs for “to take away”.[16][17] Bluteau defines it as making a thing leave its place, and taking something from someone.[18] Feijó (1734) wants tirar for taking something away, but atirar for shooting a gun.[19]

Modern Portuguese uses tirar above all for taking out, off or away: clothes, a tooth, a sum, a conclusion;[2][20][7] tirar a “to take after, resemble” matches a sense of the Spanish verb.[2][20][7] Macanese has tirâ.[1]

Timeline

  • 13th century – first records, in the cantigas.[2][3]
  • 14th century – the senses “to tear out”, “to pull” and “to steal”.[2]
  • 14th century – the Trasladação de S. Nicolau uses tirar.[21]
  • 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin aufero.[16]
  • 1611 – Barbosa adds detraho, tollo and amoveo.[17]
  • 1734 – Feijó separates tirar from atirar.[19]
  • 1813 – tirão “jerk, pull”.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To take out, remove (from a place): Tirou a carteira do bolso.[2][5]
  2. To take off (clothes, shoes, glasses).[2][22]
  3. To pull out, extract: tirar uma farpa do dedo.[2][20]
  4. To delete (from a text); to subtract (a number or sum).[2]
  5. To draw (a weapon, water, wine).[2][23]
  6. To take away, deprive of; to steal.[2][20]
  7. To deduce, draw (a conclusion).[2]
  8. To free, rescue (from prison or a difficulty).[2]
  9. To pull, haul (a cart or plough).[2][23]
  10. To throw;[2][24] (rare) to shoot, as atirar.[2][24]
  11. (with a) To resemble, take after.[20][24]
  12. To print, run off (copies).[20][24]

Word family

  • atiradeira
  • atirador
  • atirar
  • estirão
  • estirar
  • retirante
  • retirar
  • retiro
  • tiro
  • tirante

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tirar
  3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tirar
  4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tirar
  5. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tirar
  6. ^ 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. tirar
  7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8755
  8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tirar
  9. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 495
  10. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 505
  11. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. tirar
  12. ^ 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, 730
  13. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. tirar
  14. ^ 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. tirar
  15. ^ 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. tirar
  16. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tirar
  17. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tirar
  18. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tirar
  19. ^ 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. tirar
  20. ^ a b c d e f Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. tirar
  21. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tirar
  22. ^ 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. tirar
  23. ^ 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. tirar
  24. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8993

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Tirar.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/tirar. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·