Etymology and origin of the Catalan word negar
negar1 to deny
Etymology tree of negar1
From the same root · negar1
Pronunciation
Forms
negar (first-person singular present nego, first-person singular preterite neguí, past participle negat); root stress: (Northern) /e̞/, (Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia) /e/[1]
Etymology
The verb for denying is inherited from Old Catalan negar, which is inherited from Latin negō (“to say no, deny; to refuse”).[2][3][4][5][1]
It is common to all the western Romance languages: Spanish negar, Portuguese negar, Occitan negar, French nier and Italian negare.[2][6]
The Latin verb is formed on the negative neque,[7] or, as Wiktionary puts it, on ne (“not”), possibly through nec.[1]
Earliest recorded meaning
Coromines dates the first record to a document of 1243–1250, then Llull.[2] The sense is the one the word still has, to declare that something is not so: Negar de Déu veritat és major mentir “To deny the truth of God is the greatest lie”, says one of Llull's proverbs.[8]
Semantic evolution
In the medieval language negar also meant to keep hidden: a law of 1284 requires every Jew who lends on a pledge to show from whom he had it e que no la nec “and not hide it”.[2] Coromines links with this the old phrase tenir nec “to keep hidden, keep safe”, also Old Occitan, which the Costums de Tortosa use beside negar and the Consolat de mar in its place.[2] He ties nec to the verb rather than to Latin nēquus (“useless”), a vulgar variant of nēquam, as other scholars had done.[2] Meyer-Lübke also lists this nec “hidden” as a derivative of the verb.[6]
The sense of refusing is old too: in 1475 the statutes of the school of Cervera say that a lesson asked for by advanced students no·ls sie negat “shall not be refused them”.[9] The reflexive negar-se a “to refuse to (do something)” is, according to Coromines, relatively recent.[2] Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839 adds to these the senses of forbidding and of concealing.[10] Fabra's dictionary of 1932 has negar-se a fer una cosa.[11]
Timeline
- 1243–1250 – first record, in a document.[2]
- 1284 – negar “to hide” in a law text.[2]
- 1290 – Arnau de Vilanova writes that an error negue la veritat catolicha “denies the Catholic truth”.[9]
- 1475 – negar “to refuse” in the statutes of the school of Cervera.[9]
- 1839 – Labèrnia lists the senses deny, refuse, forbid and conceal.[10]
- 1932 – Fabra records the reflexive negar-se a.[11]
Meanings
Verb
- (transitive) To deny, to declare that something another person says or supposes is not true: Nega que hi hagués estat mai.[12][5][1]
- negar Déu: to deny the existence of God.[12]
- (law) Of an accused person, not to confess the offence: L'acusat ho negava tot.[12][5]
- To refuse, to say no to what is asked; not to grant: No li han negat l'ajuda.[12][1]
- (reflexive) negar-se a: to refuse to do something.[12]
- negar la cara a algú: to refuse to greet someone.[12]
Word family
- negable
- denegar
- renegar
- renec
negar2 to drown
From the same root · negar2
Pronunciation
Forms
negar (first-person singular present nego, first-person singular preterite neguí, past participle negat); root stress: (Northern) /e̞/, (Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia) /e/[1] Old Catalan also had anegar, beside negar in the Llibre de Set Savis and in the rhymed Bible; the historian Tomich, a text of 1718 and later Verdaguer use it too.[13]
Etymology
The verb for drowning is inherited from Old Catalan negar, which is inherited from Latin necō (“to kill”).[13][3][5][1] The Latin verb meant to kill, especially by strangling or suffocation, and the specialised sense “to kill in water” is already found in Late Latin, both in this verb and in ēnecō.[13][5]
This one lives on in Occitan negar and French noyer, the prefixed one in Italian annegare, Spanish anegar and Portuguese anegar.[13][14]
The Latin verb is derived from nex (“violent death”), as opposed to mors (“natural death”);[5] Wiktionary takes it back to *neḱ- (“to perish, disappear”).[1]
Earliest recorded meaning
Desclot's chronicle tells how the prince ordered someone to be drowned: E l'infant manà que·l negassen en aquella aygua “And the prince ordered them to drown him in that water”.[9] Coromines gives Llull and the Llibre de Set Savis as the first records.[13]
Semantic evolution
Old Catalan also used the verb intransitively, “to drown, perish in water”: Llull has a man qui era negat en l'aygua, and Saint Vincent Ferrer a storm in which men thought they would drown.[13] The reflexive negar-se is as old: Lo leó nega's e morí en l'aygua, writes Llull.[13] Of a ship it meant “to founder”, in the Històries troianes and in a dictionary of 1507; of a sauce such as allioli, not to bind.[13]
Today negar-se has lost ground to ofegar-se: it is no longer used in the Valencian Country and some other places, but it is usual in Northern Catalonia and most of the Principality.[13] Its Balearic use is attested by the dictionaries of Figuera (1840) and Amengual.[13] The derivative negada is recorded from 1674, and negadís “liable to flooding” as a place name in a document of 1300 from Santa Coloma de Queralt.[13] The DIEC2 adds modern senses: to make a sauce too thin, and to flood an engine with fuel.[12]
Timeline
- 1283 – Desclot's chronicle: que·l negassen en aquella aygua.[9]
- 1300 – negadís as a place name.[13]
- 1315 – intransitive negar “to drown” in a document.[13]
- 1390 – a letter of King John I tells of people who died or drowned (negaren).[9]
- 1460 – Roig's Spill: en mar los neguen “they drown them in the sea”.[9]
- 1507 – negar-se la nau “the ship founders” in a dictionary.[13]
- 1674 – first record of negada.[13]
- 1932 – Fabra records negar-se l'allioli.[11]
Meanings
Verb
- (transitive) To drown, to kill by holding under water or another liquid.[12][5][1]
- (reflexive) negar-se: to drown, to die in water: Es va negar mentre es banyava.[12][5]
- negar-se en poca aigua: (figurative) to be overwhelmed by trifles.[12][5]
- To flood, to cover with water.[12][1]
- (cooking) To make a sauce too thin;[12][5] (reflexive) of a sauce, to fail to bind.[12][5]
- (mechanics) To flood an engine, letting in too much fuel.[12]
Word family
- negada
Related words
Usage notes
A proverb the DCVB records, Qui es nega, no mira què beu, says that someone in great danger does not look closely at the means of saving himself.[15]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 893
- ^ a b Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. negar
- ^ Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 629
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. negar
- ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5876
- ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. negar
- ^ a b c d e f g Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. negar
- ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. negar
- ^ a b c Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. negar
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. negar
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 895
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5869
- ^ Rodamots: cada dia, un mot (online), https://rodamots.cat, p. s.v. negar
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Negar.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ca/negar. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.
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