validar

Forms

validar (first-person singular present valido, first-person singular preterite validei, past participle validado)^[1]

Etymology

Houaiss, Aurélio and Wiktionary derive it directly from Latin: it is borrowed from Late Latin validō (“to strengthen”), from validus (“strong”).^[2][3][1] Cunha and the DLP take it through French valider, from the Late Latin verb.^[4][5] Cunha's first date is 1813, but Houaiss has a record of 1650.^[4][2]

In Medieval Latin the verb meant “to reinforce, restore”, and Du Cange glosses it “to make valid” from a decree of the Parlement of 1394.^[6][7] The Latin verb is formed from the adjective with the suffix -ō.^[1] The Spanish word is validar.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is the Monarquia Lusitana of 1650.^[2] Bluteau quotes the same work, vol. 5, for the sense “to make valid”: Instrumentos, com que validasse a sua pósse “documents with which he might make his possession valid”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its legal sense, “to make a deed valid and lawful”: Morais (1789) illustrates it with a guardian's consent that validates a minor's promise.^[10] Aurélio adds a computing sense, to carry out the validation of data.^[3] A pronominal use, “to make oneself valued”, is recorded by Houaiss and Priberam.^[2][11] Houaiss dates the nouns validação and validade to 1597, earlier than the verb.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1650 – first record, in the Monarquia Lusitana.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau glosses it “to make valid”.^[9]
• 1734 – Feijó: “to make something valid”.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais: “to make a deed valid and lawful”.^[10]
• 1813 – Cunha's first date.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To validate: to make or declare valid; to legitimize (legitimar): validar um documento.^[2][3][1]
2. To give legal force to.^[15]
3. To prove or confirm that something is true or correct.^[5]
4. (computing) To carry out the validation of.^[3]
5. (reflexive) To become valid; to raise one's own worth.^[2][11]

Word family

• validação
• invalidar
• revalidar

Related words

• válido
• validade
• valer
• Latin validus

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. validar
3. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. validar
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. valer
5. ^ 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. validar
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. validare
7. ^ 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. validare
8. ^ 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. validar
9. ^ 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. validar
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, 507
11. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. validar
12. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. validação
13. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. validade
14. ^ 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. validar
15. ^ 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. validar