acorrer

Forms

acorrer (first-person singular present acorro, first-person singular preterite acorrí, past participle acorrido)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote acorer, and acorrel with the pronoun attached.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin accurrō (“to run up to, hasten to help”), formed from ad- and currō (“to run”).^[3][4][1][5] Already in Latin the verb was used of running to someone's help.^[5] The same verb is Portuguese acorrer, Catalan acórrer, French accourir and Italian accorrere.^[6][7][8][1]

The simple verb continues *korzō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”); it is related to currus (“chariot”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the verb in the sense “to come to the help of”: acorren la seña e a mio Çid el Campeador “they rush to the aid of the banner and of my Cid the Campeador”.^[2][10] Menéndez Pidal glosses it in the Cid as “to help, succour” and once “to serve”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In medieval Spanish the verb meant both “to run to a place” and “to help”; the Fuero de Zorita orders all men to run to the gates first if a fire breaks out.^[12][10] Alfonso X's prose uses it for running, helping, meeting a need and turning to someone for help.^[13] Corominas notes that in the General estoria and the Primera crónica general acorrer is the normal word, where socorrer is rare.^[3]

By 1726 the Diccionario de Autoridades called it old and little used.^[14] Terreros said that it was frequent in the books of chivalry and the old ballads, and quoted Don Quixote's Acorredme, señora mía, en esta primera afrenta.^[15] Cuervo thought that Cervantes himself used it only to imitate the old language of those books, but poets kept it: Fray Luis de León wrote Acude, acorre, vuela, and Jovellanos and Martínez de la Rosa followed him.^[16] The Academy's 1817 dictionary also records the sense “to shame someone”, the same sense as in correr.^[17][7]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for “to come to the aid of”.^[2][10]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita uses it for “to run to a place”.^[10][12]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for “to help”.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin accurro, succurro and subvenio as equivalents.^[18]
• 1577 – first record in the Americas, in Cuba.^[19]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it old and little used.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the obsolete sense “to shame someone”.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin accurrere.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To help someone, to go to someone's aid.^[4][1][21]
2. To attend to or meet a need.^[4][13]
3. (obsolete) To shame someone.^[4]
4. (obsolete) To run to a place.^[4][1]
5. (obsolete) To turn to someone for help, to appeal.^[4]
6. (obsolete, reflexive) To take refuge.^[4]

Word family

• acorro

Related words

• correr
• socorrer
• Latin accurrō
• Portuguese acorrer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. acorrer
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 208
4. ^ 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. acorrer
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. accurrō
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 91
7. ^ a b Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. acórrer
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 11
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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, p. s.v. acorrer
11. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. acorrer
12. ^ 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. 114
13. ^ a b c 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. acorrer
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 64
15. ^ 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, 24
16. ^ 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, 148
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 15
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 283
19. ^ 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. acorrer
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 16
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acorrer