abrir

Forms

abrir (first-person singular present abro, first-person singular preterite abrí, past participle abierto)^[1] Old and dialectal spellings include abril, aurir, avrir, habrir and aprir.^[2] Obrir and ubrir are eastern forms: obrir in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca is due to a copyist from eastern Aragon or Catalonia, and is still used in the Upper Aragonese of Ansó, Plan, Gistáin and Bielsa.^[3][2] The past participle is the irregular abierto, not *abrido.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin aperīre (“to open”).^[3][5][6][1]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese abrir, Catalan obrir, Occitan obrir, French ouvrir and Italian aprire.^[7][1] The REW explains the forms with ⟨o⟩, still found in Piedmontese and other Italian dialects, by the influence of cooperiō (“to cover”).^[7] Catalan dialects also have aurir and ubrir.^[8]

The Latin verb comes from Proto-Italic *ap-wer-je- (“to open”), with the /w/ lost after the labial, and its opposite operiō (“to cover”) was formed in the same way.^[9] De Vaan derives it from Proto-Indo-European *h₂u̯er- (“to cover”) with the prefix of ab (“off, away”), and Lithuanian atvérti (“to open”) is a cognate.^[9][1] Gómez de Silva glosses the compound as “to uncover”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TDHLE's earliest quotation is in the Fazañas of Palenzuela, dated 1126–57: a man came to a house at night et abriod las portas “and opened the doors” to steal two sheep.^[2] The DCECH and the BDELC date the verb from the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140), where the weeping Cid looks back and sees puertas abiertas e uços sin cañados “doors open and doorways without padlocks”.^[3][5][11]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias listed figurative uses: abrir en cobre “to engrave”, abrir tienda “to set up shop”, abrir el ojo “to keep one's eyes open, not be fooled”, and abrir el tiempo of clouds clearing.^[12] The Academy's definition of 1770, “to remove what prevents going in or out, or letting in light”, lasted until 1817, and was then folded into the general sense “to uncover what is shut or hidden”.^[2]

The derivative abertura dates from 1220–1250; the learned apertura was taken from Latin about 1800, and the musical obertura from French ouverture.^[5][3] In the Canaries abrir a with an infinitive means “to start to”.^[2] In several Latin American countries abrirse means to step aside, and in Chile and the River Plate for a couple to split up.^[13]

Timeline

• 1126–1157 – abriod las portas in the Fazañas of Palenzuela.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid, the DCECH's first record.^[3][5]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes, the first record without a later copy.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – the derivative abertura.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives abrir la puerta as Latin resero and pando.^[14][2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records abrir tienda and abrir el ojo.^[12]
• 1770 – the Academy's first definition, kept until 1817.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To open; to uncover what is shut or hidden: Abrió la caja con cuidado.^[6][1]
2. (transitive, also intransitive and pronominal) To open a door or window, swinging it on its hinges.^[6]
3. (transitive) To unlock; to draw a bolt or lift a latch.^[6][1]
4. (transitive) To pull out a drawer; to uncork or uncap a container.^[6]
5. (transitive) To spread out what was folded or drawn in: abrir un mapa, abrir la sombrilla.^[6][1]
6. (transitive, also pronominal) To split, crack, tear open.^[6][1]
7. (transitive) To make a hole, a path or a channel.^[6]
8. (transitive) To open a letter or parcel; to engrave a plate or die.^[6]
9. (transitive) To clear an obstacle: abrir paso.^[6]
10. (transitive) To start or set up a business; to turn on a tap.^[1]
11. (pronominal) To open up, to confide in someone.^[1]
12. (pronominal, Latin America) To step aside; to back out;^[13][1] (Chile, River Plate) of a couple, to split up.^[13][1]

Word family

• abertura
• entreabrir
• abrebotellas
• abrecartas
• abrelatas
• abrepuertas
• reabrir

Related words

• abierto
• abridor
• apertura
• obertura
• cubrir
• Latin aperiō
• Portuguese abrir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. abrir
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, 22
4. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 22
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abrir
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. abrir
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 515
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 573
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 27
11. ^ 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. abrir
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 50
13. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. abrir
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 282