vender

Forms

vender (first-person singular present vendo, first-person singular preterite vendi, past participle vendido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote vender, uender and uẽder;^[2][3] Houaiss records ueender in the 15th century.^[2][3] The old past participle was vendudo.^[2] A dialect form vinder is recorded in Portugal.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vendō (“to sell”), written Old Galician-Portuguese vender in the oldest texts.^[3][1][5] The same Latin word is Galician vender, Spanish vender, Catalan vendre, French vendre, Italian vendere and Romanian vinde.^[6][7][1]

The Latin verb is a contraction of a phrase meaning “I give for sale”, from vēnum (“sale”) and dō (“to give”).^[3][8][1] Corominas notes that this late contraction explains the long vowel kept before a nasal and a stop, against the normal Latin sound rules.^[9] Its counterpart vēneō (“to be sold”) is literally “to go on sale”.^[1] Wiktionary traces the noun to Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to sell, buy”).^[1] Houaiss adds that because sellers praise their goods the Latin verb also came to mean “to praise, extol”.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's date of 874 is a Latin charter with uindere.^[3] In Galician-Portuguese the verb is found from the 13th century in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (u as omages vendian, “where the images were sold”), in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and in the satirical cantigas, already in the sense “to sell”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The medieval texts use the verb for selling goods; the Cantigas de Santa Maria have the old participle in nunca foi assi vendudo Rey Don Sanch'en Portugal, “never was King Sancho so sold in Portugal”.^[2] The phrase vender a retalho, to sell retail, is already in the cantigas.^[11]

Morais (1789) records the figurative vender a vida, a honra, a liberdade, to give them up for gain.^[12] The senses of betraying (vender a pátria), of taking a bribe (vender-se) and of prostituting oneself developed from there.^[3][13] Houaiss also records “to persuade someone of an idea”, “to sell well” (of a product) and vender saúde, to be bursting with health.^[3]

Timeline

• 874 – a Latin charter has uindere.^[3]
• 13th century – vendian in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, vendeu in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda.^[2][3]
• 1513 – first dated text in the CTA, the Livro dos Mártires.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin vendo and the passive veneo.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists vender a pregão and vender em almoeda, to sell by auction.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records vender a honra.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To sell: to hand over goods or property in exchange for money.^[3][13][1]
2. (transitive) To deal in, to trade in: Esta loja vende ferramentas.^[3][13]
3. (transitive) To put up for sale.^[3][17]
4. (intransitive) To work as a salesperson; of a product, to sell well.^[3][18]
5. (transitive, figurative) To sacrifice for money or advantage; to betray.^[3][19]
6. (transitive, figurative) To persuade someone of the merits of an idea or project.^[3][20]
7. (pronominal) To let oneself be bribed; to prostitute oneself.^[3][19]
8. (transitive) To have plenty of a quality: vender saúde.^[3]

Word family

• vendedor
• vendável
• revender

Related words

• venda
• Latin vendō
• Galician vender

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 f 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. vender
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vender
4. ^ 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. vender
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vender
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9190
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. vendere
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 768
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vendre
11. ^ 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. vender
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vender
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vender
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vender
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vender
17. ^ 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. vender
18. ^ 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. vender
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. vender
20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9427