tramar

Forms

tramar (first-person singular present tramo, first-person singular preterite tramei, past participle tramado)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese trama + -ar.^[2][1][3][4] The noun is from Latin trāma (“warp; weft”), which the OLD tentatively derives from a form *tragh-sma, from trahō (“to draw, drag”).^[5][3][6] The OLD notes that the Latin word seems to mean the warp, while its Romance descendants mean the weft.^[6]

Houaiss's dates put the verb (1392) before the noun (1552), while Cunha dates the noun to the 16th century and the verb to the 17th.^[2][5][3] The same derivative is Spanish tramar, Catalan tramar, French tramer and Italian tramare, which also means “to plot”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is the form tramauam, of 1392.^[2] Pereira (1697) glosses it only with Latin molior “to contrive”, and Bluteau (1712–1728) refers it to ordir and tecer “to weave” and to traçar “to plan” in the figurative sense.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau quotes António Vieira: Ahi he que Labão trama os seus enganos “That is where Laban weaves his deceits”.^[9] Morais (1789) gives the literal “to weave” and the figurative tramar enganos, and Feijó (1734) glosses it as traçar.^[10][11] The figurative senses “to scheme” and “to conspire” are now the commonest.^[2][12] Caldas Aulete records a Portuguese slang sense “to get someone into trouble”, and Houaiss a sense “to plan and carry out well”, as a move in a game.^[13][2]

Timeline

• 1392 – first record, tramauam.^[2]
• 1552 – Houaiss's first record of the noun trama.^[5]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses tramar with Latin molior.^[8]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the figurative sense, with a quotation from Vieira.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais gives tecer and tramar enganos.^[10]
• 1813 – first record of tremar “to unravel”, probably an altered form of tramar.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pass the weft (trama) between the threads of the warp (urdidura); to weave.^[2][12]
2. (figurative) To scheme, contrive in secret: Os dois tramaram a fuga durante semanas.^[2][12]
3. (figurative, with contra) To conspire: tramar contra o rei.^[2][12]
4. (figurative) To plan and carry out well, as a move in a game.^[2]
5. (Portugal, informal) To get someone into trouble; to harm.^[4][13]

Word family

• destramar

Related words

• trama
• urdir
• Latin trāma

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. tramar
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. trama
4. ^ 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. tramar
5. ^ a b c Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. trama
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8847
8. ^ a b 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. tramar
9. ^ 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. tramar
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, 474
11. ^ 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. tramar
12. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tramar
13. ^ 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. tramar