acordar

Forms

acordar (first-person singular present acuerdo, first-person singular preterite acordé, past participle acordado)^[1] The stressed forms of the present have the diphthong ue (acuerdo, acuerdas, acuerdan), as Autoridades already notes.^[2] A Latinising spelling accordar occurs in some 16th-century texts;^[1] alcordar is a modern vulgar form recorded in Asturias, Santander, Biscay and Navarre.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *accordare (“to bring into agreement”), recorded from the earliest texts, the Cantar de mio Cid and the Auto de los Reyes Magos.^[4][5][6][1] Corominas explains the Vulgar Latin verb as made from cor (“heart”) on the model of concordō (“to agree”) and discordō (“to disagree”), by a change of prefix that made it transitive;^[4][5] Wiktionary and Bénaben likewise see ad- put in place of the prefix of the first.^[1][7] Meyer-Lübke and Wartburg derived it from chorda (“string of an instrument”).^[4] Corominas rejects this because the musical sense is technical and probably secondary, and allows the string only a semantic influence on that sense, a view Ernout shared.^[4] The BDELC and Bénaben also limit the influence of cuerda to the musical sense.^[5][7] García de Diego, in contrast, keeps the sense “to agree” apart and derives it from *acchordare (“to tune the strings”).^[8] The verb is common to the western Romance languages: Italian accordare, French accorder, Occitan acordar, Catalan acordar and Portuguese acordar.^[4]

Old Spanish also used the verb for “to come to one's senses”, later “to wake up”, which Corominas and the BDELC treat separately: in this sense it was taken from acordado (“sensible, prudent”), recorded in the Cid, which continues cordātus (“wise, prudent”), a derivative of the word for heart.^[9][5] Only Castilian and Portuguese have it, and the Latin adjective occurs only in archaic and late authors, so Corominas counts it among the archaisms of Hispanic Latin; cuerdo was drawn from the same participle.^[9] In Portuguese “to wake up” is now the main sense of the verb, and Nascentes separates the two origins in the same way.^[10][11]

The commonest modern use, the reflexive “to remember”, has no Latin antecedent and is a Castilian innovation, foreign to Catalan and almost so to Portuguese.^[12] Corominas explains it by analogy with recordar, which shared the sense “to come round, wake up” and also meant “to remember”, so that the reflexive verb followed it into that sense.^[12] The BDELC and DICCA-XV also derive this use from that verb.^[13][14] Cuervo, by contrast, traces every sense to the Latin word for heart as the seat of the mind.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) the besieged hero turns to his men for counsel: mio Çid con los sos tornós a acordar “my Cid turned to take counsel with his men”.^[16][3] The poem also has the sense “to agree” (acuerdan en una razón) and the transitive “to persuade, bring to agreement”.^[17][3] The Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) asks ¿Por qué non somos acordados? “why are we not of one mind?”.^[16]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to tune” an instrument is old, recorded since Berceo.^[4][18] In the prose of Alfonso X the verb already means “to decide jointly”, “to reconcile” and “to remind”.^[19] Berceo's Duelo has the second verb, “to come round”: those near the fainting Virgin poured cold water on her por tal que acordasse “so that she would come round”.^[3][9] The reflexive acordarse “to remember” appears from the early 13th century in the Fuero Juzgo and the Partidas, and is frequent from the Celestina on.^[12]

Nebrija's Vocabulario (c. 1495) separates “to agree with another”, “to deliberate”, “to tune voices”, “to remember” and “to wake someone”.^[14][20] Covarrubias (1611) explains it as bringing something back to memory, and also as the resolution of a council or the King's chancery.^[21] Autoridades put first the decisions of courts and communities taken by vote.^[2] The Academy marked “to wake up” as obsolete in 1770, still used in Extremadura.^[22] The DLE keeps it as used in Salamanca, where Lamano recorded it as very common.^[6][23]

In the River Plate, Chile and Peru acordar also means “to grant”, a gallicism after French accorder that Malaret and Román criticised.^[24][25] The DAMER records it today in the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.^[26]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for “to take counsel”, “to agree” and “to persuade”.^[16][3][5]
• c. 1180 – the Auto de los Reyes Magos has the participle acordados “of one mind”.^[16][4]
• first half of the 13th century – Berceo has acordar “to come round”.^[5][9]
• 1240 – the BDELC's date for acordarse “to remember”.^[13]
• 1256 – Alfonso X's Picatrix uses it for “to remind”.^[19][27]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija lists the senses “agree”, “deliberate”, “tune”, “remember” and “wake”.^[14]
• 1515 – first records from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[28]
• 1611 – Covarrubias links it with memory and with the resolutions of councils.^[21]
• 1770 – the Academy marks “to wake up” as obsolete, still used in Extremadura.^[22]
• 1946 – Malaret records “to grant” in Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay.^[24]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) Of a group: to agree on or decide something together or by a majority: Los vecinos acordaron cerrar la calle al tráfico.^[6][1]
2. (transitive) Of one person: to resolve or decide something deliberately, or before ordering it.^[6]
3. (transitive) To reconcile, bring into harmony.^[6]
4. (transitive) To remind someone of something.^[6]
5. (transitive, music) To tune an instrument, or to harmonise voices so that they do not clash.^[6][1]
6. (transitive, painting) To harmonise the tones of a drawing or painting.^[6]
7. (intransitive, León, Bolivia, Honduras, Mexico) To realise, become aware (caer en la cuenta).^[6]
8. (intransitive, obsolete) To agree, match; to come to one's senses;^[23] (Salamanca) to wake up (despertar).^[6][23]
9. (transitive, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay) To grant: Le acordaron una beca.^[26][24]
10. (reflexive, with de) To remember: ¿Te acuerdas de aquel verano en Cádiz?^[6][1]
11. (reflexive) To come to an agreement.^[6][1]

Word family

• acuerdo
• acorde
• desacuerdo
• desacordar

Related words

• concordar
• concorde
• corazón
• cordial
• cordura
• cuerdo
• discordar
• recordar

Usage notes

The set phrase si mal no me acuerdo means “if my memory does not fail me”.^[6] Román notes that the verb takes the diphthong in every sense, also when it means tuning an instrument, though some editions of the Academy's grammar had called it regular there.^[25] The old sense “to wake up” lives on in the speech of Salamanca, Ciudad Rodrigo and the Sierra de Francia.^[23][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 63
3. ^ 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. acordar
4. ^ 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, 41
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acordar
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. acordar
7. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
9. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 42
10. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. acordar
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. acordar
12. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 826
13. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. recordar
14. ^ a b c 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
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
17. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 14
18. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. s.v. acordar
19. ^ 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)
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
21. ^ 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. 55
22. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra
23. ^ a b c d Lamano y Beneite, José de (1915), El dialecto vulgar salmantino, Salamanca: Tipografía Popular
24. ^ a b c Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé
25. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José
26. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
27. ^ 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
28. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies