urdir

Forms

urdir (first-person singular present urdo, first-person singular preterite urdi, past participle urdido)^[1] The old form is ordir;^[2][3] Cunha dates urdir to 1572.^[2][3] Bluteau (1712) still has both, and Feijó (1734) explains that the dictionaries list both because some authors write urdir and others ordir.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ōrdior (“to lay the warp; to begin”), through the active form ōrdiō of popular Latin, and was written Old Galician-Portuguese ordir in the oldest texts.^[6][2][7][1] The OLD notes that the active form already occurs in Afranius.^[8]

The same Latin verb is Galician urdir, Spanish urdir, Catalan ordir, French ourdir, Italian ordire and Romanian urzi.^[9][1] Nascentes explains the /u/ by the semivowel of the Latin first person, as Menéndez Pidal did for Spanish;^[10][5] Feijó observed that the forms with the stress on the stem were always said with /u/.^[10][5]

De Vaan takes the Latin verb from a Proto-Italic stem meaning “row, arrangement”, perhaps from *h₂or-d-, its first sense being the laying of the warp threads in order; the OLD finds it probably related to ōrdō (“row, order”), while Wiktionary calls its origin unknown.^[11][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use the verb figuratively: dos que me mal querian / e buscavan e ordian “of those who wished me ill and sought and plotted”.^[3] The weaving sense is recorded in a charter of 1348, cinquoeenta uaras de lenço que seen ordidas “fifty yards of linen that are warped”, and the Crónica Troiana has ordir et engeñar a morte de achiles “plot and contrive the death of Achilles”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Both senses, the weaver's “to lay the warp” and the figurative “to plot”, are present from the start.^[3][6] Bluteau (1712) defines ordir as setting the threads on the loom and, metaphorically, ordir enganos “to contrive deceits”.^[4] Cunha dates urdidor to the 16th century and urdidura “warp” to the 17th.^[2] Modern dictionaries add “to devise the plot of a story” and “to imagine”.^[6][12][13] In rural Portugal and Brazil the verb still names the setting up of the threads before weaving.^[14]

Timeline

• 13th century – ordian in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][6]
• 1348 – ordidas “warped” in a charter.^[3]
• 1572 – first record of the form urdir, and of urdido.^[2]
• 1712 – Bluteau enters both ordir and urdir.^[4][15]
• 1734 – Feijó discusses the spellings urdir and ordir.^[5]
• 1871 – Vieira still refers urdir to ordir.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To warp, lay the warp threads for weaving.^[6][13][1]
2. To weave: A aranha urdiu a sua teia no canto.^[6][12]
3. (figurative) To devise the plot of (a story or play).^[6][12]
4. (figurative) To scheme, plot: urdir uma intriga.^[6][13][1]
5. To imagine, invent.^[6][12]

Word family

• urdido
• urdidor
• urdidura

Related words

• exórdio
• primórdio
• Latin ōrdior
• Spanish urdir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. urdir
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ordir
4. ^ 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. ordir
5. ^ a b c d 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. urdir
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. urdir
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. urdir
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ordior
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6093
10. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 516
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ōrdior
12. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. urdir
13. ^ 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. urdir
14. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. urdir
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. urdir
16. ^ 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, 862