abrigar

Forms

abrigar (first-person singular present abrigo, first-person singular preterite abrigué, past participle abrigado)^[1] Old spellings include abrjgar, avrygar and aurigar.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin aprīcō (“to warm in the sun”), the Late Latin active form of aprīcor (“to bask in the sun”).^[3][4][5][1] The sense “to protect from the wind” is already found in the Latin of Palladius in the 4th century.^[3] The Old Spanish adjective abrigo (“sheltered”), used by Berceo, continues the Latin adjective aprīcus (“sunny”), from which the verb is derived.^[3][6] Gómez de Silva explains the change of meaning as going from “to sun oneself” to “to protect oneself from the cold by sunning” and then to “to protect”.^[7]

The same verb is Portuguese abrigar, Galician abrigar, Catalan abrigar and Occitan abrigar, the source of Old French abrier.^[8][9][10] Wiktionary also gives an alternative derivation from a Late Latin *abrīgō based on Frankish *biwrīhan (“to cover, protect”), perhaps crossed with *bergan (“to protect, hide”); the French Wiktionary calls this less likely.^[1] In the 19th century Barcia had derived the verb from German bergen, after Diez.^[11]

De Vaan describes the Latin adjective as the opposite of opācus (“shady”), and reports Nussbaum's suggestion that it is a compound meaning “open-looking”, with a first part related to ab (“away, off”).^[12] The DHLF rejects a real connection with aperiō (“to open”), from which Wiktionary derives it.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1230, in a copy of the late 13th century), where Saint Martin vido a Don Christo del manto abrigado “saw Christ wrapped in the cloak” that he had given to a poor man.^[2][13][14] The sense is “to wrap up against the cold”, the main sense today.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish also used the verb for keeping and providing for someone: in the 13th-century debate Elena y María the poor clerk neither advises nor abriga his lady.^[14][13] The noun abrigo meant a sheltered place in the Navarrese fueros, where a leper may not stay in church or en abrigo with his neighbours.^[13] Nebrija in 1495 distinguished sheltering in a warm place from warming in general.^[15]

The Autoridades of 1726 gave “to protect from the cold with clothes” and, metaphorically, “to defend, patronise”.^[16] Terreros recorded a nautical sense, the caulking of a ship's sides and masts.^[17] Domínguez in 1846 was the first to give the sense of holding ideas or feelings, which the Academy took up in 1899 with the examples abrigar proyectos, esperanzas.^[18][19] The Academy's 1899 edition also added the nautical sense of sheltering a ship from wind and sea.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – Berceo has Christ del manto abrigado in the Vida de Santo Domingo.^[2][13]
• c. 1250 – the noun abrigo “shelter” appears in the Fuero de Viguera y Val de Funes.^[13][4]
• c. 1280 – Elena y María uses abriga in the sense “to provide for”.^[13][14]
• 1455 – the opposite desabrigar is recorded.^[3][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin aprico for sheltering in a warm place.^[20]
• 1547 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[21]
• 1726 – the Autoridades defines it as protecting from the cold with clothes.^[16]
• 1846 – Domínguez gives the sense “to hold ideas or feelings”.^[18]
• 1899 – the Academy adds abrigar proyectos, esperanzas and the nautical sense.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) Of a landform, building or the like, to shelter someone or something: El muro de piedra abrigaba el huerto del viento.^[5][1]
2. (transitive, also reflexive) To cover or wrap someone in clothing to keep them warm; to bundle up: Abrígate bien, que hiela.^[5][1]
3. (transitive, also intransitive) Of clothing or cloth, to keep warm: Este jersey abriga poco.^[5][1]
4. (transitive) To harbour an idea, thought or feeling: abrigar sospechas.^[5][22]
5. (horsemanship) To press the legs against a horse's belly to urge it on.^[5]
6. (rare) To protect (amparar) someone with affection and care.^[5]
7. (nautical) To shelter a ship from the wind or the sea.^[23][22]

Word family

• abrigo
• desabrigar
• abrigado
• abrigaño

Related words

• Latin aprīcus
• Portuguese abrigar
• French abri

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. abrigar
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 21
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abrigar
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. abrigar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. abrigar
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. apricare
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 560
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 77
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. abrigar
14. ^ a b c 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. 53
15. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. abrigar
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 21
17. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 8
18. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 19
19. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 6
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 282
21. ^ 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. abrigar
22. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abrigar
23. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. abrigar