vigiar

Forms

vigiar (first-person singular present vigio, first-person singular preterite vigiei, past participle vigiado)^[1] Houaiss records the historical spellings uigiar (14th century), uegiar and vygiiem (15th century).^[2] Feijó (1734) notes vigear as a spelling to avoid.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vigilō (“to stay awake, to keep watch”), written Old Galician-Portuguese vigiar in the oldest texts.^[2][4][5][1] Wiktionary calls it probably a semi-learned word, while Aurélio and Wikcionário describe it as a popular development of the Latin verb.^[1][6][7]

The same Latin verb is Romanian veghea, Italian vegliare, French veiller, Occitan velhar, Catalan vetllar and Spanish velar.^[8][1] The Portuguese velar “to keep vigil” is, according to Meyer-Lübke, borrowed from Spanish.^[8] In the other direction Spanish took the nautical vigiar from Portuguese in the 19th century, beside its learned vigilar.^[9][10] Portuguese also has vigilar, taken from the Latin verb and recorded from 1881, and vigília from the Latin noun of the same family.^[4]

The Latin verb is formed from vigil (“awake, alert”).^[11][1] Wiktionary traces the adjective to *weǵ- (“to be strong, lively”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the verb is intransitive, “to stay awake, to keep watch”: vos rogarei / que vigiedes migo “I will ask you to keep watch with me”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, staying awake on watch, is the Latin one, which in Medieval Latin also meant keeping a night vigil of prayer.^[12][13] Bluteau (1712–1728) still defines the verb as “to be on watch”, with Latin phrases for watching through the night.^[14] Folqman (1755) adds vigiar-se “to be on one's guard”, and Morais (1813) the transitive “to spy on, to observe”, a nautical vigiar o mar ao longe “to scan the sea for what appears in the distance”, and an example from a chronicle of watching most of the night in prayer.^[15][16]

The modern language uses the verb mainly for watching over, guarding and keeping under observation;^[2] Houaiss also has the sense “to inspect, to check”.^[2] In Brazil it can mean “to look for” (livestock in the field).^[6][17]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records; the Cantigas de Santa Maria have vigiedes.^[2][4][12]
• 14th century – the spelling uigiar.^[2]
• 1513 – vigiar in the Livro dos Mártires.^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin vigilo.^[19]
• 1599 – a private letter writes vegiavam.^[20]
• 1755 – Folqman records the reflexive vigiar-se “to be on one's guard”.^[15]
• 1813 – Morais has the nautical vigiar o mar ao longe.^[16]
• 19th century – Spanish borrows the nautical vigiar.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To observe closely; to keep an eye on: Ela vigiava a panela no fogão.^[2][6][1]
2. To watch secretly; to spy on: Os vizinhos vigiavam cada passo do recém-chegado.^[2][21]
3. To look after, to watch over (a sick person, a child); to velar.^[2][22]
4. To inspect, to check; to keep under control.^[2][23]
5. (intransitive) To stay awake or alert; to be on sentry duty.^[2][17][1]
6. (reflexive) To be on one's guard, to take precautions.^[2][23]
7. (nautical) To keep a lookout over the sea and the air for dangers or enemy targets.^[2]
8. (Brazil) To look for, to round up (livestock).^[6][17]

Word family

• vigia
• vigiante
• vigiado
• vigiador
• vigieiro

Related words

• vigilância
• vigilante
• vigília
• vigilar
• velar
• Latin vigilō

Usage notes

The Gospel phrase vigiai e orai “watch and pray” uses the intransitive sense.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vigiar
3. ^ 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. vigiar
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vigiar
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vigiar
6. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vigiar
7. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. vigiar
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9326
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 757
10. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. velar
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. vigilō
12. ^ a b c 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. vigiar
13. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. vigilare
14. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vigiar
15. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vigiar
16. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 852
17. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. vigiar
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vigiar
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vigiar
20. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. vigiar
21. ^ 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. vigiar
22. ^ 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. vigiar
23. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9503