acabar

Forms

acabar (first-person singular present acabo, first-person singular preterite acabé, past participle acabado)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote acauar and acavar.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish acabar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *accapāre.^[1][4] The DLE and Corominas treat it as a derivative of cabo (“end”), literally “to bring something to the end”;^[1] Corominas adds that it is common to all the Hispanic and Gallo-Romance languages and must be very old.^[5][6][7] The Latin verb is formed from ad (“to”), capus (“head”), which in Romance came to mean “end”, and the verb ending.^[1]

The same verb is Portuguese acabar, Galician acabar, Asturian acabar, Aragonese acabar, Catalan acabar, Occitan acabar and French achever.^[7][1] The French word comes from the phrase Old French a chief (“to the end”), in which chief (“head”) had taken the sense “end, extremity”.^[8] Machado says the Latin verb spread through the western Romance languages.^[4]

The noun continues Latin caput (“head”).^[6][7] Covarrubias (1611) explained the verb as “to give a head”, a metaphor from sculptors who finish the head of a statue last, or else from the noun meaning “end”; only the second explanation is still accepted.^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), already in the sense “to finish”: Quando acabó la oraçión, a las dueñas se fo tornar “when he had finished the prayer, he turned to the ladies”, and la missa acabada la an “they have finished the mass”.^[10][2][11] The Cid also uses it for “to obtain” and, reflexively, for “to come to an end”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Cuervo divided the senses into two series: “to bring to the end” and “to reach the end”, each leading either to completion or to destruction.^[12] Both were there in Old Spanish: Alfonso X's prose has it for “to finish”, “to consume, destroy” and “to kill”, and other medieval texts for “to die”.^[13][3] Covarrubias (1611) gives “to finish, perfect”, “to die”, “to kill” and “to persuade”, as in no pude acabar con él que volviese “I could not get him to come back”.^[9] The sense “to obtain” survived into the 19th century but is now marked obsolete.^[14][5]

By 1817 the Academy recorded acabar de with an infinitive, “to have just done”, and acabar con “to kill, destroy”.^[15] The 1726 Autoridades already had the painter's sense “to give the second coat that finishes a sketch”.^[16] In the Americas acabar means “to speak ill of someone” in Ecuador, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, as Alemany noted for Ecuador, and in colloquial use in several countries “to reach orgasm”.^[17][5][18] Corominas notes that in parts of the Americas terminar is preferred for this reason.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[6][7][10]
• c. 1250 – the noun acabamiento in the Setenario.^[7][6]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's prose uses it for “to finish”, “to destroy” and “to kill”.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin finio and termino.^[20][21]
• 1528 – first record in the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains it from the head, or from cabo “end”.^[9]
• 1726 – Autoridades analyses it as a + cabo.^[16]
• 1817 – the Academy records acabar de + infinitive as an auxiliary use.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology de a y cabo.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To finish, bring to an end: Ya acabé el informe.^[5][1]
2. (transitive) To use up, consume: Se acabó el pan.^[5][23]
3. (transitive) To give the finishing touches to a work.^[5]
4. (transitive) To kill.^[5]
5. (transitive, Ecuador, colloquial) To insult.^[5]
6. (transitive, obsolete) To obtain, achieve.^[5]
7. (intransitive) To end in a certain way: El bastón acaba en una bola.^[5]
8. (intransitive) To die.^[5]
9. (intransitive, also pronominal) To die out, come to nothing.^[5]
10. (intransitive, with con) To destroy, put an end to: Las deudas acabaron con la empresa.^[5][1]
11. (intransitive, with de and an infinitive) To have just done something: Mi hermana acaba de llamar por teléfono.^[5][1]
12. (intransitive, with a negative, with de) Not to manage to do something: No acaba de decidirse.^[5]
13. (intransitive, colloquial, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela and other countries) To reach orgasm.^[5][1]
14. (intransitive, Cuba, Dominican Republic) To speak ill of someone.^[5][18]

Word family

• acabamiento
• acabado
• acabóse
• menoscabar

Related words

• cabo
• cabal
• recabar
• terminar
• French achever

Usage notes

Set phrases include de nunca acabar “never-ending”, already in the Quijote as sería nunca acabar, and ¡acabáramos!, said when a long delay or doubt is at last over.^[5][24][25] In Argentina y san se acabó means “and that's that”.^[26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. acabar
3. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 6
4. ^ a b Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 49
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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. acabar
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cabo
7. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 714
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. achever
9. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 52
10. ^ a b 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. 68
11. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. acabar
12. ^ 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, 85
13. ^ 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. acabar
14. ^ 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. 9
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 8
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 31
17. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 15
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. acabar
19. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 471
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (c. 1495), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca (facsimile, Madrid: Real Academia Española 1951), p. 16
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 282
22. ^ 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. acabar
23. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acabar
24. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 23
25. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 6
26. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 3