trair

Forms

trair (first-person singular present traio, first-person singular preterite traí, past participle traído)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote traer, past participle traudo.^[2][3] Houaiss has trayu and treeu in the 14th century, traahem in the 15th and the spelling trahir from 1642.^[4] Vieira (1871–1874) still heads the verb trair or trahir.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin trādō (“to hand over; to betray”), and was written Old Galician-Portuguese traer in the oldest texts.^{[4][3][1][6][7]} The Latin verb is formed from trāns (“across”) and dō (“to give”).^[1][8][4] Its first sense is “to hand over”, and Nascentes explains the shift: the traitor hands a person over to his enemies.^[6][4] The sense “to betray” is already Latin: Niermeyer lists it in medieval texts, and Du Cange cites the old translator of the Gospels, who used the verb for Judas.^[9][10]

The same Latin verb is Italian tradire, French trahir, Catalan trair, Romanian trăda and the obsolete Old Spanish traer.^[11][12][13] French continues a popular Latin *tradiō, an alteration of the classical verb.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of a woman's irmão muy falsso, que a foy traer “very false brother, who went and betrayed her”, and use the participle traudo “betrayed”.^[2] In the cantigas d'escarnho, Airas Perez Vuitoron has quen trae castelo “whoever betrays a castle”, that is, hands it over to the enemy.^[2] Houaiss dates the verb to the 13th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The medieval verb is used of handing over a castle or a person treacherously, as in the Crónica Troiana, where Achilles understands that he has been betrayed.^[2] Bluteau (1712–1728) wrote that he could not remember finding trair in any Portuguese author and preferred fazer traição.^[15] Morais (1789) nevertheless quotes it from Leão, Castanheda, Arraes, Ferreira and Barros, in the spelling trahir.^[16]

Later senses extend it to unfaithfulness in love, to breaking a promise or a principle, to failing someone's hopes, and to revealing something without meaning to; reflexively, trair-se is to give oneself away.^[4][17][7] Porto Editora also records “to translate badly”.^[18]

Timeline

• 13th century – traer and the participle traudo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2]
• 14th century – the forms trayu and treeu.^[4]
• 1642 – the spelling trahir.^[4]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses Trair with Latin prodo and trado.^[19]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau doubts that Portuguese authors use the verb.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais heads it trair and quotes it from 16th-century authors.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To betray; to deceive treacherously: Jurou que nunca trairia os amigos.^[4][20][1]
2. To hand over or denounce someone in an act of treachery.^[4][20]
3. To be unfaithful to; to cheat on (a partner): Descobriu que a mulher o traía.^[4][1][21]
4. To abandon a belief or principle treacherously.^[4]
5. To break (a promise, an oath or a duty).^[4][17]
6. To reveal unintentionally: A voz traiu o seu medo.^[4][17]
7. (reflexive) To give oneself away.^[4][22]
8. To fail to live up to (expectations); to let down.^[4][17]
9. (figurative) To translate badly.^[18]

Related words

• traição
• traiçoeiro
• traidor
• traimento
• atraiçoar
• tradição
• French trahir

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. traer
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. traição
4. ^ 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. trair
5. ^ 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, 786
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. trair
7. ^ 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. trair
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. trādō
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. tradere
10. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. tradere
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. tradere
12. ^ 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. trair
13. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. traer
14. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. trahir
15. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. trair
16. ^ 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, 474
17. ^ a b c d 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. trair
18. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9089
19. ^ 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. trair
20. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. trair
21. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. trair
22. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. trair