esmerar

Galician

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese, from Vulgar Latin *exmerāre (“to purify”), from Latin ex merēre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Verb

esmerar (first-person singular present esmero, first-person singular preterite esmerei, past participle esmerado)

1. (transitive) to clean, purify
   • c. 1300, R. Martínez López, editor, General Estoria. Versión gallega del siglo XIV, Oviedo: Archivum, page 271:

     cõmo faz a lyma ao ferro, et a fornaz ao ouro que o purga et esmera et o faz puro et paresçe mellor, et cõmo faz outrosi o máále áá messe que a degrana em çeueyra et parte a palla do graão que e o mellor

     as the file does to iron, and the furnace to gold, that purges and cleans it and makes it pure and looks better; and also as the flail does to the harvest, that threshes it into sustenance and parts the straw and the grain, which is the best part

2. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to work with effort and dedication

Conjugation

Derived terms

• esmerado
• esmero

References

• “esmerar” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
• “esmer” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “esmerar” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “esmerar” in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega, Royal Galician Academy.
• “esmerar” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.

Portuguese

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *exmerāre (“to purify”), from Latin ex merēre. Compare Spanish esmerar.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: es‧me‧rar

Verb

esmerar (first-person singular present esmero, first-person singular preterite esmerei, past participle esmerado)

1. to hone (to refine or master a skill)

   Synonyms: aperfeiçoar, apurar

Conjugation

Derived terms

• esmero

Further reading

• “esmerar” in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2024.
• “esmerar” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *exmerāre (“to purify”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /esmeˈɾaɾ/
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: es‧me‧rar

Verb

esmerar (first-person singular present esmero, first-person singular preterite esmeré, past participle esmerado)

1. (transitive) to clean

   Synonyms: pulir, limpiar, ilustrar

2. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to hone, to painstakingly do something

Conjugation

Derived terms

Further reading

• “esmerar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014