porfiar

From Old Galician-Portuguese porfiar, perfiar (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from porfía.

• IPA^(key): [poɾfiˈaɾ]

porfiar (first-person singular present porfío, first-person singular preterite porfiei, past participle porfiado)
porfiar (first-person singular present porfio, first-person singular preterite porfiei, past participle porfiado, reintegrationist norm)

1. to insist, persist; to argue

   Synonyms: insistir, teimar, terquear

   • 1858, Manuel Fernández Magariños, Seor Pedro: Cometa:

     Mais boto a conta do probe que non recolle carolo si non porfía co rico e terquea como o porco

     But I'm counting on the poor who doesn't pick a piece of bread if he doesn't argue with the rich and insist as a pig

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “perfiar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “perfi”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “porfiar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “porfiar”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “porfiar”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

From porfia +‎ -ar.

• Hyphenation: por‧fi‧ar

porfiar (first-person singular present porfio, first-person singular preterite porfiei, past participle porfiado)

1. (intransitive) to dispute

   Synonym: disputar

2. (intransitive, transitive) to insist, persist

   Synonyms: insistir, teimar

• porfiado

From porfía +‎ -iar.

• IPA^(key): /poɾˈfjaɾ/ [poɾˈfjaɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: por‧fiar

porfiar (first-person singular present porfío, first-person singular preterite porfié, past participle porfiado)

1. to insist, persist; persevere

   Synonym: insistir

   porfiar por algo, porfiar en algo

   insist on something

   • 1633, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Amar después de la muerta:

     ¡Qué pesadas y qué necias son, pues en cuanto porfían, nunca ha quedado por ellas!

     They're so grating and stubborn! Whenever they persist, he has never said no to them!

2. to argue

   Synonyms: discutir, debatir

   • 1891, José María de Pereda, Nubes de estío, Chapter 9:

     Conoció que su hermana no había dormido un instante en toda la noche, aunque Irene aseguraba lo contrario; pero no quiso porfiar por no recrudecer las heridas.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “porfiar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024