abés

Forms

abés (adverb, archaic)^[1] Old Spanish wrote it abés, avés, aués, a ves and abez;^[2][3][4] abés is the commonest form and is already in the Cid.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

In Corominas's view it is inherited from Latin vix (“hardly, with difficulty”), with an initial a- that he puts down to the influence of apenas.^[3] Meyer-Lübke and Wiktionary start from a Latin phrase *ad vix, with the preposition ad (“to”).^[5][1] Both see the same Latin adverb in Romanian abia (“hardly”).^[3][5][1] Corominas adds vess in Sursilvan, Portuguese tamalavés (16th century) and perhaps Old French a vis onques, which is phonetically difficult.^[3]

The Latin ending -ix regularly became -eis at the end of a word in Spanish, as in seis from sex, and -eis was then reduced to -es, as in beso and cerveza.^[3] The 2001 edition of the Academy's dictionary derived the word instead from an Andalusian Arabic phrase, from a Classical Arabic one meaning “there is no harm in it”.^[6][7] Wiktionary calls the Arabic explanation less likely.^[1]

De Vaan connects the Latin adverb with the root of vincō (“to conquer”), from a noun meaning “bond”, so that “within bonds” came to mean “hardly”.^[8] Wiktionary instead takes it from Proto-Italic *wiks (“a turn, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyk-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas takes the word back to the form veiza in the Glosas Emilianenses of the mid-10th century.^[3] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) it means “with difficulty, barely”: the Cid's men are short of bread and barley, las otras abés lieva “he can barely carry the rest”.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The adverb was common from the 12th to the 15th century in the sense “with difficulty, hardly”.^[9][2] It appears in the Libro de Apolonio, the Libro de Alexandre and Berceo, and in the prose of Juan Manuel in the 1320s.^[2] Alfonso X's Estoria de España has it in the phrase a mal abés “just barely, a little”.^[10][3] Other texts add mal in the same way: malavez occurs in the Castilian Grail romance and in Hernando de Talavera.^[3] The Portuguese have malavez and tamalavés from the 16th century.^[3] The word was obsolete by the time of the modern dictionaries, which label it archaic.^[6][11][1]

Timeline

• mid-10th century – the Glosas Emilianenses have the form veiza.^[3]
• c. 1140 – abés in the Cantar de mio Cid, v. 582.^[2][9]
• c. 1240 – abez in the Libro de Apolonio.^[2][9]
• c. 1265 – Berceo's Santa Oria has aués.^[2]
• 1284 – a mal abés “barely” in Alfonso X's Estoria de España.^[10]
• 1326 – Juan Manuel writes a ves in the Libro del cavallero et del escudero.^[2]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary gives an Arabic etymology.^[6]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (archaic) With difficulty; hardly, barely.^{[6][11][1][2]}

Related words

• apenas
• Latin vix
• Romanian abia

Usage notes

Moliner lists the variant avés beside abés.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. abés
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 13
4. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. abés
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. abés
7. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 33
10. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. abés
11. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abés