tossir

Forms

tossir (first-person singular present tusso, third-person singular present tosse, first-person singular preterite tossi, past participle tossido)^[1] Old forms are tosir and tussir, the latter in the Alcobaça Latin dictionary and in a book of table manners.^[2] Houaiss dates tosya to the 15th century and tussir to 1813, and Folqman (1755) refers tossir to tussir.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tussiō (“to cough”), written Old Galician-Portuguese tossir in the oldest texts.^[3][5][1][2] The Latin verb is formed from tussis (“cough”) with the suffix -iō.^[6][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician tusir, Spanish toser, Catalan tossir, French tousser, Italian tossire and Romanian tuși.^[7][8][1] The DDGM notes that the Spanish verb moved to another conjugation.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century: in cantiga 199 a needle comes out as a woman coughs (e tossindo), and in 322 the Virgin makes a man cough up a bone stuck in his throat (en tosindo lle fez deitar… aquel osso).^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defines it as clearing the airways with the force and noise that a cough causes, and records botar algũa cousa tossindo, to bring something up by coughing.^[9] Morais (1789) adds the transitive use, to throw something out of the throat.^[10] Later dictionaries add the deliberate cough, given to warn someone or to draw attention.^[3][11] The DLP also uses it of an engine that runs in fits and starts.^[12]

Timeline

• 1200s – tossindo and tosindo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• 1400s – Houaiss's form tosya.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso enters tossir with Latin tussio.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds tossegoso “who coughs much”.^[14]
• 1755 – Folqman refers tossir to tussir.^[4]
• 1789 – Morais records the transitive sense “to throw out of the throat”.^[10]
• 1813 – Houaiss dates the spelling tussir to this year.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To cough.^[3][15][1]
2. (intransitive) To cough on purpose, to warn someone or to draw their attention.^[3][16]
3. (transitive) To cough up; to expel from the throat.^[3][17]
4. (intransitive) Of an engine or machine: to run jerkily and noisily.^[12]

Related words

• tosse
• tossegoso
• Latin tussis
• Galician tusir
• Spanish toser

Usage notes

In the present the stem vowel alternates: tusso, tosses, tosse, subjunctive tussa.^[17][18] Williams treats it among the radical-changing verbs.^[19]

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 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. tossir
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tossir
4. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tossir
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tossir
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. tussio
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9015
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. tussire
9. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tossir
10. ^ 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, 471
11. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. tossir
12. ^ 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. tossir
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tossir
14. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tossir
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9066
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. tossir
17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tossir
18. ^ 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. tossir
19. ^ Williams, Edwin B. (1938), From Latin to Portuguese: Historical Phonology and Morphology of the Portuguese Language, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. § 176.3