embaçar

Portuguese[edit]

From em- +‎ baço (“lustreless”) +‎ -ar.

(Brazil) IPA^(key): (careful pronunciation) /ẽ.baˈsa(ʁ)/ [ẽ.baˈsa(h)], (natural pronunciation) /ĩ.baˈsa(ʁ)/ [ĩ.baˈsa(h)]
- (São Paulo) IPA^(key): (careful pronunciation) /ẽ.baˈsa(ɾ)/, (natural pronunciation) /ĩ.baˈsa(ɾ)/
- (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): (careful pronunciation) /ẽ.baˈsa(ʁ)/ [ẽ.baˈsa(χ)], (natural pronunciation) /ĩ.baˈsa(ʁ)/ [ĩ.baˈsa(χ)]
- (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): (careful pronunciation) /ẽ.baˈsa(ɻ)/, (natural pronunciation) /ĩ.baˈsa(ɻ)/

embaçar (first-person singular present embaço, first-person singular preterite embacei, past participle embaçado)

(transitive) to reduce the luster or the transparency [of something]
(reflexive) to lose luster or transparency
(by extension) to make [an image, a picture] indistinct or hazy, to blur
(figurative) to make more confusing, to obscure, to obfuscate
(figurative, by extension) to deceive
- 1881, Machado de Assis, Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas:
  [E] o melhor da obrigação é quando, à força de embaçar os outros, embaça-se um homem a si mesmo[.]
  And the best part of the obligation comes when, by deceiving others, a man deceives himself.
(figurative) to make less prestigious, to make less eminent, to outshine

Conjugation of embaçar (c-ç alternation) (See Appendix:Portuguese verbs)

¹Brazilian Portuguese.
²European Portuguese.

HOUAISS, A. and DE SALLES VILLAR, M. Minidicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 2008.
Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa. São Paulo: Encyclopaedia Britannica do Brasil Publicações Ltda., 1976.