abogar

Forms

abogar (first-person singular present abogo, first-person singular preterite abogué, past participle abogado)^[1]

Etymology

Corominas takes it as a derivative, from Spanish abogado (“lawyer, advocate”), dating the noun to the first half of the 13th century and the verb to the middle of it.^[2] García de Diego reports that Meyer-Lübke and Wartburg also took the Spanish verb for a back-formation from the noun.^[3] The DLE, the Academy's historical dictionary, Moliner and Wiktionary derive it instead directly from Latin advocāre (“to call to one's side, summon”).^[4][5][6][1] In Christian authors the Latin verb had taken the sense “to help, to be of use”, beside the classical “to call in as counsel for a litigant”.^[5]

Old Spanish spelt it ⟨auogar⟩, ⟨avogar⟩, ⟨aduogar⟩ and, in a Latinising form, ⟨aduocar⟩.^[5] The learned forms advocar and avocar are doublets from the same Latin verb.^[1][3] The same verb is Portuguese advogar, whose older forms include ⟨uogar⟩ in the 13th century, Italian avvocare and French avouer, recorded about 1120.^[7][1][8]

The Latin verb is formed from ad- (“to”) and vocō (“to call”), a derivative of vōx (“voice”).^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Vidal Mayor (c. 1250) speaks of the office of auocar ho de procurar, pleading in court or acting as a proxy.^[10][11] Alfonso X's Partidas (1256–1263, in a 14th-century manuscript) forbid a man who fights wild beasts for money to abogar, since he would not shrink from deceit in the suits he argued.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The verb was first a term of the law courts: Nebrija renders abogar en lo criminal defendiendo with Latin patrocinor, Percyvall (1591) translates it “to play the aduocate, to pleade”, and the Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) defines it as defending causes and suits in court.^[12][13][14] The Academy's 1770 volume added the figurative sense “to intercede, to speak in favour of someone”.^[15] Its 1884 edition gave the etymology from Latin advocare, from ad and vocare.^[16]

Cuervo quotes the legal sense in Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Quevedo.^[17] In the Americas it is recorded from Lima in 1538.^[18] Today the usual sense is to speak up for a cause or person, with por or en favor de.^[6][4]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – auocar in the Vidal Mayor.^[10][11]
• 1256–1263 – Alfonso X's Partidas use abogar.^[5]
• 1513 – Nebrija's Vocabulario glosses it with patrocinor.^[12]
• 1538 – first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[18]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “to pleade”.^[13]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the legal sense.^[14]
• 1770 – the Academy adds the figurative sense “to intercede”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin advocare.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law) To plead; to defend a party in court, in writing or orally.^[4][1]
2. To advocate, intercede; to speak in favour of someone or something (with por or en favor de): Siempre abogó por una escuela pública más fuerte.^[4][6][1]

Related words

• abogado
• abogador
• advocar
• avocar
• voz
• Latin advocō
• Portuguese advogar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abogado
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. abogar
5. ^ a b c d e 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. abogar
6. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abogar
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. abogar
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. abogar
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 281
13. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 50
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 14
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 13
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. 5
17. ^ 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, 47
18. ^ a b 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. abogar