Bank and post office

Near the end of the list stands entregar, and the picture inside it is not the picture inside « deliver ». The older spelling was entergar, and the verb comes from the Latin integrare, to make whole again, to restore in full, built on integer, untouched. The root that gave English « entire », « integrity » and « integral » is therefore the one at work when a parcel changes hands across a counter in Lisbon: it is given over complete, with nothing missing, and Entregaram a encomenda ao vizinho says the neighbour now holds all of it. English reached the same counter from somewhere else entirely. « Deliver » travelled through French from liberare, to set free, which is why the verb still sounds in « deliverance » and in a child being delivered. Two counters, two ideas of what the hand is doing: one completes a set, the other lets go. And the Portuguese noun keeps the first idea in plain sight, since a entrega das chaves is a handover at which everything has to be there.