vencer

Forms

vencer (first-person singular present venço, first-person singular preterite venci, past participle vencido)^[1] Houaiss records the old forms uence and vencia (13th century), vecermos and veençer (14th) and vinçiam (15th).^[2] The medieval past participle was vençudo.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vincō (“to conquer, overcome”), written Old Galician-Portuguese vencer in the oldest texts.^[2][1][4] The same Latin verb is Galician vencer, Spanish vencer, Catalan vèncer, French vaincre, Italian vincere and Romanian învinge.^[5][1][6]

Wiktionary traces the Latin verb through *winkō to a nasal-infix present of *weyk- (“to overcome”), whence also 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌰𐌽 (weihan, “to fight”).^[1] De Vaan reconstructs the nasal present *ui-n-k- with the meaning “to bend, tie”, so that “overcome” would come from “tie in”; he compares veikti (“to work; to overcome”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria the verb already means “to defeat” and “to surpass”: a singer tan ben cantava ... que vencia quantos eran en ssa terr'e alende “sang so well that he outdid all who were in his land and beyond”, and venced'o jogo means “win the game”.^[3] The cantigas d'escarnho also have the reflexive vencer-se “to submit, resign oneself”.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) lists, beside winning a battle, the legal sense “to win a lawsuit”, vencer em votos “to outvote”, vencer as paixões “to master one's passions” and vencer o caminho “to reach the end of the road”.^[9] The older Aulete adds the sense of earning a salary or interest.^[10]

The financial sense “to fall due”, said of a bill or a debt, is shared with Spanish.^[5][11] Modern Portuguese also uses the verb for a date or a product that expires.^[1][12] In southern Brazil vencer also means “to succeed in life” and “to finish a task”.^[13]

Timeline

• 13th century – vencia and venced'o jogo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• c. 1430 – vencer in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses vencer with Latin vinco.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists vencedor and vencedora.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records vencer em votos and vencer o caminho.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To defeat an opponent; to win: A nossa equipa venceu por dois golos.^[2][17][1]
2. (transitive) To win a competition, an election or a lawsuit.^[2][18]
3. (transitive) To overcome or master a difficulty, fear or passion.^[19][20]
4. (transitive) To surpass, to be better than.^[19][18]
5. (transitive) To cover a distance; to get to the end of something.^[19][12]
6. (transitive) To earn as pay.^[19][12]
7. (intransitive) To succeed, to do well in life.^[12][13]
8. (intransitive) Of a bill or a debt, to fall due; of a period or a product, to expire.^[10][1]
9. (reflexive) To restrain oneself.^[19]

Word family

• vencedor
• vencimento
• vencível

Related words

• invencível
• vitória
• convencer
• Latin vincō
• Galician vencer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vencer
3. ^ a b c d 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. vencer
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vencer
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9338
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 522
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. vencer
9. ^ 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, 15
10. ^ 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. vencer
11. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 768
12. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9425
13. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. vencer
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vencer
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vencer
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vencer
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vencer
18. ^ a b 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. vencer
19. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. vencer
20. ^ 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. vencer