tombar

Forms

tombar (first-person singular present tombo, first-person singular preterite tombei, past participle tombado)^[1] The oldest texts write tobar and tonbar; the 14th century has the imperfect tonbaua.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed in Galician-Portuguese from an imitative root /tumb/ that renders the thud of a falling object, and was written Old Galician-Portuguese tonbar and Old Galician-Portuguese tobar in the oldest texts.^[2][4][3] Cunha, Nascentes, Aurélio and the DLP also call it expressive or onomatopoeic.^[4][5][6][7]

Houaiss compares Spanish tumbar, Catalan tombar, French tomber and Italian tombare, and notes that some scholars give the root a Germanic origin.^[2] Wiktionary adds Romanian tumbă and asks whether German taumeln is related.^[1] The DHLF explains the French verb from the same expressive root, perhaps spread from country to country by the jongleurs, and counts the Portuguese verb among its relatives unless it is a loan.^[8] Wiktionary prefers for the French verb a source in Frankish *tumbōn (“to turn, reel, sway”), from Proto-Germanic *tūmōną (“to turn, rotate”).^[1] The DCECH explains the Spanish verb, first recorded about 1490, from an imitative sound as well.^[9]

Bluteau derived the verb either from French or from a Greek word for “fall” that lost its initial p-.^[10] Figueiredo took it from Old High German tūmōn, and Meyer-Lübke thought that its /b/ pointed to a recent loan from Spanish.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cantiga 33 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria has e tonbar / no mar foi e mergullar “and went tumbling into the sea and plunged”, and the Crónica Troiana has outras uezes tonbaua ou saltaua “at other times he tumbled or leapt”.^[3] Both use the verb intransitively, for a fall that rolls or turns over.^[3] Lorenzo cites them to antedate Machado, who knew the word only from the 16th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries render the verb by Latin words for slipping, turning over and laying low: Cardoso (1569) by labor, Barbosa (1611) by volvo with the gloss dar volta “turn over”, Pereira (1697) by prosterno.^[12][13][14] Bluteau insisted that it is not the same as French tomber: a straight fall from a height is not tombar, which means to turn over or to fall tumbling, as boulders that come rolling down.^[10] Feijó (1734) defines it as falling to one side and rejects the sense “resound” as an error.^[15]

Morais (1789) nevertheless gives “fall”, “resound”, with a quotation from Barros in which a voice tombava agradavelmente, and the transitive “knock down”.^[16] Houaiss now marks “resound” as obsolete.^[2] Vieira adds a figurative use, toppling the world from east to west.^[17] In modern use the verb also means to die, especially in battle; in north-eastern Brazil it means to change direction on a journey.^[2][6] Priberam records “drink, get drunk” in Trás-os-Montes, and Schlee the figurative “suffer a defeat” in Rio Grande do Sul.^[18][19]

Timeline

• 13th century – tobar (Houaiss) and tonbar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• 14th century – tonbaua (Houaiss).^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders tombar by Latin labor.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses it dar volta.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau separates it from French tomber.^[10]
• 1734 – Feijó calls the sense “resound” an error.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais lists “fall”, “resound” and “knock down”.^[16]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira records the figurative use.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To knock down, to make fall: O vento tombou o vaso da varanda.^[2][6]
2. (intransitive) To fall to the ground: Na tempestade tombaram dois pinheiros.^[2][20]
3. (transitive) To tilt or incline something out of the vertical: Tombou a cabeça sobre o ombro.^[2]
4. To fall off, coming loose from something: O livro tombou-lhe do colo.^[2][21]
5. To fall rolling, to tumble down: A pedra tombou pela encosta.^[2][21]
6. To move downwards, to decline: O sol tombava atrás dos montes.^[2][20]
7. (intransitive and pronominal) To fall over to one side, to capsize or overturn: O camião tombou-se na curva.^[2][6]
8. Of hair or cloth, to fall softly onto something.^[2]
9. To strike or fall upon something: Um raio tombou sobre a torre.^[2][21]
10. To slide down a surface: As lágrimas tombavam-lhe pelo rosto.^[2][21]
11. (north-eastern Brazil, informal) To change direction on a journey.^[2][6]
12. To lose one's life, to die, especially in battle.^[2][7][1]
13. (obsolete) To resound, to boom.^[2][16]
14. (Trás-os-Montes) To drink, to get drunk.^[18]

Word family

• tombo

Usage notes

Houaiss, Aurélio and the DLP enter a second verb tombar “to make the inventory of, to register (lands, property)”, first recorded in 1600 and formed from tombo “register of lands, archive” with the suffix -ar; in Brazil it means to place a building or object under the protection of the state as heritage.^[2][6][7] Cunha relates that verb to tumba.^[4] Morais already has tombar terras “to make the register of lands”.^[16]

Priberam records the phrase cheira que tomba “it smells very strongly, it stinks”.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tombar
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. tonbar
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tombar
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tombar
6. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tombar
7. ^ a b c 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. tombar
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. tomber
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 692
10. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tombar
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. tombar
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tombar
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tombar
14. ^ 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. tombar
15. ^ 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. tombar
16. ^ a b c d 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, 465
17. ^ 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, 760
18. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. tombar
19. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. tombar
20. ^ 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. tombar
21. ^ a b c d 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. tombar