abandonar

Forms

abandonar (first-person singular present abandono, first-person singular preterite abandoné, past participle abandonado)^[1] From the 13th century Old Spanish also had the dissimilated form abaldonar, which survives in the Americas and Asturias.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French abandonner, derived from the phrase Old French laisser a bandon (“to leave in (someone's) power”).^[3][4][5] bandon (“power, authority”) is from Frankish *bann (“command, jurisdiction”).^[3][4] Wiktionary takes the Frankish word back to Proto-Germanic *bannaną (“to command, summon”).^[1] Kroonen and Orel connect the Germanic verb with Latin for (“to speak”) and Ancient Greek φημί (phēmí, “to say”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to speak”).^[6][7]

From the 13th century Spanish used the dissimilated form Old Spanish abaldonar, with the same change as baldón, taken from the French noun.^[2][3] The historical dictionary of the Academy suggests that Italian abbandonare influenced the word in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's first record is abandonando in a charter of 1251 from the diplomatic collection of Theobald I of Navarre.^[9] The Aragonese works of Juan Fernández de Heredia use it from 1376.^[10] Corominas's first record is in Santa Fe's poems in the Cancionero de Palacio, about 1420, where it means “give up”: Non basta seso ni arte / tal desgrado abandone “neither wit nor art is enough for him to give up such displeasure”.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

Cuervo defined the verb as properly “to leave a thing to whoever comes first”, and so “to leave for ever, breaking ties of love or duty”.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades still thought it a word taken from French.^[12] Baralt, a purist, condemned the senses “to renounce” and the reflexive “to give oneself up” as Gallicisms in 1855.^[13] The Academy recorded the reflexive senses “to give oneself up to idleness and vice” and “to lose heart” by 1843.^[14] Today the verb also means “to retire” from a game or race.^[15]

The Academy derived it from Low Latin abandonare in 1884, from abandono in 1899, and now from French.^[16][17][15] The noun abandono is first recorded in 1710.^[4]

Timeline

• 1251 – abandonando in a charter of Theobald I of Navarre.^[9]
• 13th century – the dissimilated form abaldonar.^[4][3]
• 1376 – Juan Fernández de Heredia uses it in his Aragonese works.^[10]
• c. 1420 – Santa Fe, in the Cancionero de Palacio: Corominas's first record.^[3][8]
• 1584 – Cervantes's Galatea has abandonar la empresa “give up the undertaking”.^[8]
• 1690 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[18]
• 1710 – the noun abandono.^[4]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a word taken from French.^[12]
• 1855 – Baralt lists several of its senses as Gallicisms.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Low Latin abandonare.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To abandon, desert someone or something: Abandonaron al perro en la carretera.^[15][1]
2. To give up an occupation, attempt or right already begun; in games and sport, to retire (mostly intransitive).^[15]
3. To leave a place.^[15]
4. To stop frequenting or living in a place.^[15]
5. To rest or lean something limply (mostly reflexive).^[15]
6. To entrust or hand something over to a person or thing (mostly reflexive).^[15]
7. (reflexive) To let oneself be ruled by feelings, passions or vices.^[15]
8. (reflexive) To neglect one's interests or duties, or one's appearance.^[15]
9. (reflexive) To lose heart, give in to adversity.^[15]

Word family

• abandonado
• abandonamiento
• abandonismo
• abandonista
• abandono

Related words

• baldón
• French abandonner

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. baldón
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 6
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abandonar
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. bandon
6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 52
7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 36
8. ^ a b c d 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. abandonar
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. abandonar
10. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. abandonar
11. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 1, 34
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 5
13. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 41
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 1
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. abandonar
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 2
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 2
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. abandonar