adornar

Forms

adornar (first-person singular present adorno, first-person singular preterite adorné, past participle adornado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin adōrnō (“to prepare, equip; to adorn”),^[2][1][3][4] formed from ad- and ōrnō (“to furnish, equip”).^[5][6] Corominas dates it to the middle of the 15th century, in Pérez de Guzmán and Alonso de Palencia, and notes that it was already frequent in the 16th.^[3] He calls it a visible learned word, because its /d/ between vowels was kept, but one much more popular than the simple verb ornar.^[3]

The Latin simple verb goes back to *ōrdnō, formed on Latin ōrdō (“order, row”); it is thus a doublet of ōrdinō (“to arrange”).^[7][8] The inherited forms of the Latin compound are Italian adornare, Old French aorner and Old Occitan azornar.^[9] Catalan adornar is likewise taken from Latin.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record without a later witness in the CDH is the Spanish translation of Jacques de Vitry's abridged history of Jerusalem (after 1350), of garments adornados & pintados, “adorned and painted”, like a statue in a temple.^[11] The Libro del cavallero Cifar (1300–1305) already has kings adornándolas, furnishing churches with ornaments, but it is known only from a copy of the late 15th century.^[11] A Latin–Spanish glossary of about 1400 uses adornar to translate Latin words.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense of decking out a person or thing is the first and remains the main one.^[12][13] Covarrubias in 1611 glossed it as to attire, enrich with jewels and embellish, and applied it to painters, who adorn a panel with buildings, trees and clouds, and to speech enriched with rhetorical figures.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) gave three senses: to embellish a thing, to embellish a speech or poem with tropes and figures, and the gifts and virtues that adorn a person's soul or mind.^[15] Cervantes has honesty as a virtue that “adorns” body and soul.^[16]

Two senses of the Americas are colloquial: in Nicaragua, Cuba, Ecuador, Argentina and Uruguay it is a rare euphemism for being unfaithful to one's partner, and in Argentina it means to bribe someone.^[17][1] In Mexico in 1587 the participle adornado is recorded as a nautical term for a ship heeling over in a storm.^[18]

Timeline

• 1300–1305 – adornándolas in the Libro del cavallero Cifar (copy of the late 15th century).^[11]
• after 1350 – adornados in the translation of Jacques de Vitry.^[11]
• c. 1445 – Montoro's Cancionero: adorna tus fases.^[13]
• mid-15th century – Corominas's first record, in Pérez de Guzmán.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin orno and adorno.^[19]
• 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[18]
• c. 1600 – the noun adorno.^[3][4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias applies it to painting and rhetoric.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To adorn or decorate with ornaments; also reflexive: Adornaron la plaza con farolillos.^[2][1]
2. Of a thing: to serve as an ornament to another; to embellish it.^[2]
3. To endow a being with virtues or perfections; to honour or exalt it.^[2]
4. Of qualities or favourable circumstances: to distinguish or exalt a person; also reflexive: Le adorna una gran paciencia.^[2][20]
5. (Nicaragua, Cuba, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay; colloquial, euphemistic, rare) To be unfaithful to one's partner.^[17][1]
6. (Argentina, colloquial) To bribe someone.^[17][1]

Word family

• adorno
• adornamiento
• adornante

Related words

• ornar
• ornamento
• ornato
• sobornar
• Latin orno

Usage notes

The verb is construed with con or de: adornar con flores, adornar de tapices.^[21][20] The phrase adornarse con plumas ajenas means to take credit for others' merits.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. adornar
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 302
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ornar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. adornō
6. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. adorno
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ornō
8. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. orno
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. adōrnāre
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. adornar
11. ^ 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. adornar
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. 145
13. ^ 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. adornar
14. ^ 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. 1, 69
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 92
16. ^ 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. 42
17. ^ 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. adornar
18. ^ a b 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. adornar
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 285
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. adornar
21. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 44
22. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1908–1914), Tesoro de la lengua castellana: origen y vida del lenguaje, 12 vols., Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. s.v. adornar