vestir

Forms

vestir (first-person singular present visto, third-person singular present veste, first-person singular preterite vesti, past participle vestido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese also wrote vistir, and Houaiss records uistiir and the first person ujstio in the 14th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), written Old Galician-Portuguese vestir and Old Galician-Portuguese vistir in the oldest texts.^[3][5][2][1] The same Latin verb is Galician vestir, Spanish vestir, Catalan vestir, French vêtir, Italian vestire and Romanian vești.^[6][1]

The Latin verb is formed from vestis (“clothing”).^[7][8] De Vaan derives the noun from Proto-Indo-European *wes-ti-, from the root *wes- (“to be dressed, wear”), which is also behind Ancient Greek ἕννυμι (hénnumi, “to clothe”) and Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐍃𐍄𐌹 (wasti, “garment”), and is the source of the English verb wear.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1061 has at meo debito que me uestias bene, “that you clothe me well”.^[2] In Galician-Portuguese the verb appears in the 13th century: the Cantigas de Santa Maria have hũa alva, que nas sas festas vestisse, “an alb, for him to wear on his feast days”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The medieval verb already means both “to put clothes on someone” and “to wear”; the Cantigas de Santa Maria say that a holy man always wore a hair shirt (celiço por camisa sempre acaron vestia).^[2] The cantigas d'amigo use the infinitive as a noun, o vestir, “garment, dress”.^[2][9]

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as to cover the body with clothes, with vestir-se to dress oneself.^[10] Figurative senses developed: to cover or line, to adorn, to disguise, to take on a role;^[3][11][12] Silva Bastos (1912) records printers' uses for fitting a machine or framing an engraving.^[3][11][12] Of a garment, vestir bem means to fit well.^[3]

Timeline

• 1061 – a Latin charter has uestire and uestias.^[2]
• 13th century – vestisse in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][5]
• 14th century – the spelling uistiir.^[3]
• c. 1430 – first dated text in the CTA, the Horto do Esposo.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin induo.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, pronominal) To dress, to clothe; to get dressed.^[3][15][1]
2. (transitive) To put on a garment: vestir o casaco.^[3][1]
3. (transitive) To wear; to dress in a certain way or in a certain fabric: vestir-se de linho.^[3][1]
4. (intransitive) Of clothes, to fit and suit the wearer.^[3]
5. (transitive, pronominal) To dress up as, to disguise as.^[3]
6. (transitive) To provide someone with clothes; to make clothes for.^[11]
7. (transitive, figurative) To cover, line or adorn.^[11][12]

Word family

• revestir

Related words

• vestimenta
• vestuário
• veste
• vestido
• Latin vestis
• Galician vestir

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 g h 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. vestir
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vestir
4. ^ 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. vestir1
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vestir
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. vestir2
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vestir
11. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. vestir
12. ^ a b c Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. vestir
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vestir
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vestir
15. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vestir