administrar

Forms

administrar (first-person singular present administro, first-person singular preterite administré, past participle administrado)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote aministrar, admenistrar and admjnjstrar; the forms without /d/ were frequent in texts until the 16th century and now survive only in popular speech, and Salamanca has a popular almenistrar.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin administrāre (“to assist; to manage”), a learned word.^[4][1] Corominas dates it about 1300 and places it among the learned words of the family of menester, beside ministro and suministrar.^[5] DICCA-XV gives 1293 as the first date in the CORDE.^[6]

The Latin verb is ministrō (“to attend, serve”) with the prefix ad-, and the simple verb comes from minister (“servant, attendant”).^[1][7] In Latin it first meant to help, to serve at a sacrifice, then to manage or direct.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in the Castigos del rey don Sancho IV (1292–1293, known from a 15th-century copy): todo omne es obligado de castigar, regir e aministrar sus fijos, “every man is bound to correct, govern and guide his children”.^[10][2] The sense there is moral guidance, a use the TDHLE follows into the 17th century.^[2] The first hit without a later copy is a charter of 1340, on the administration of the church of Guadalupe.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the verb for governing and disposing of goods and for administering justice.^[11] Covarrubias (1611) defined it as managing an estate, a person or the commonwealth.^[12] Autoridades (1726) added the sense of serving or offering something, especially in sacred use, and a poetic sense “to wield a weapon”.^[13] The phrase administrar sacramentos “to give the sacraments” is in the Academy's 1770 edition, and the 1884 edition added the giving of medicines.^[14][15] Cuba used it absolutely for giving the last rites, and the Canaries kept that sense as an archaism.^[16][2] Puerto Rico uses it colloquially for fleecing someone by trickery.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 1292–1293 – aministrar in the Castigos del rey don Sancho IV.^[10]
• c. 1300 – Corominas's date for the word.^[5]
• 1535 – first record from the Americas, in Santa Marta.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines the verb.^[12]
• 1770 – the Academy records administrar sacramentos.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the giving of medicines.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To govern (gobernar) a territory and its people.^[4]
2. (transitive) To direct an institution; to manage or administer, especially an estate or property: Ella administra la empresa familiar.^[4][1]
3. (transitive) To hold or exercise an office or dignity.^[4]
4. (transitive) To supply, provide or distribute something.^[4]
5. (transitive) To confer a sacrament (sacramento).^[4]
6. (transitive, also reflexive) To apply or give a medicine (medicamento).^[4][1]
7. (transitive, also reflexive) To ration something so that it lasts or works better: Hay que administrar bien el agua en el viaje.^[4]
8. (Puerto Rico, colloquial) To get money from someone by trickery.^[17][18]

Word family

• autoadministrarse
• administración
• administrador
• administrativo

Related words

• ministrar
• suministrar
• ministro
• menester

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. administrar
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. administrar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. administrar
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. menester
6. ^ 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. administrar
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. administrar
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. administrar
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
11. ^ 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. 139
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. 68
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 87
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 74
15. ^ 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. 22
16. ^ Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 5
17. ^ 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. administrar
18. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 83
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. adminestrar