aferrar

Forms

aferrar (first-person singular present aferro or (obsolete) afierro, first-person singular preterite aferré, past participle aferrado)^[1] Old and classical Spanish also wrote afferrar.^[2] The present afierra occurs now and then in the 15th century, and in the 16th and 17th centuries afierro is as common as aferro or more, before it disappeared.^[3][1] The infinitive afierrar in Palet (1604) and Terreros (1786) is an error drawn from these forms.^[2]

Etymology

Corominas takes it as borrowed from Catalan aferrar, a seafaring word first used of ships that grapple one another when boarding, from ferro (“iron, anchor”).^[3] Prat Sabater counts it among the nautical Catalanisms of Spanish, and lists it among the loans that keep Latin f-.^[4][5] Gómez de Silva also derives it from Catalan, where it meant to hold a ship fast with irons or anchors.^[6] The Catalan verb continues *affĕrrāre, from Latin ferrum (“iron”).^[7]

Other sources make it a native word.^[8][1] The DLE forms it from the prefix a- and ferro (“anchor”), and Wiktionary has it inherited from Vulgar Latin *adferrāre.^[8][1] The native Spanish outcome of the Latin noun is hierro, with initial /f/ turned into /h/, as in herrar.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Libro de Alexandre (c. 1240–1250), in the manuscript O of the 14th century, where the stones of a city wall are fastened together: éstas con aquéllas son assý afferradas “these are so fastened to those”.^[2][9] The 15th-century manuscript P has aforadas instead, which Corominas finds meaningless.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the 14th century the verb is frequent, almost always in its nautical sense.^[3] The Sumas de la historia troyana (c. 1350) has a ship aferrando with the captain's ship, and Fernández de Heredia's chronicles have galleys that afferraronse with the admiral's galley.^[9] Cuervo takes the nautical sense, to secure a ship with the anchor, as the basic one, and the others as extensions and metaphors.^[10]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) gives two senses: to secure a ship in port by dropping its anchors, and to grasp something hard.^[11] The Academy added the furling of sails in 1817, and in 1843 the pronominal uses: of ships grappling one another, and figuratively of insisting stubbornly on an opinion.^[12][13] This last sense is now the most common use of aferrarse.^[14][15] In Mexico the verb keeps the sense of furling a sail, flag or awning, and in Chile it can mean to deal someone a blow.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (manuscript of the 14th century) has afferradas “fastened”.^[2][3]
• c. 1350 – the Sumas de la historia troyana uses it of ships grappling.^[9]
• 1385 – the Spanish Libro de Palladio has the diphthonged afierra.^[9][17]
• before 1404 – Diego Furtado de Mendoza uses it figuratively, of a man pressing his suit.^[2]
• 1539 – the first record from the Americas, from New Granada.^[18]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines anchoring a ship and gripping something.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the furling of sails.^[12]
• 1843 – the Academy adds aferrarse “to insist stubbornly on an opinion”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's first etymology derives it from a and fierro.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grasp or grip firmly; also used intransitively.^[8][1]
2. (nautical) To furl square sails on their yards, and fore-and-aft sails, awnings and the like on their ropes.^[8][1]
3. (nautical) To catch with a boathook (bichero) or another hooked tool.^[8]
4. (nautical) To secure a ship in port by dropping its anchors.^[8]
5. (nautical, intransitive) Of an anchor: to bite into the bottom.^[8]
6. (pronominal) To grip something hard, of ships grappling one another with hooks: El niño se aferró a la mano de su madre.^[8][15]
7. (pronominal, aferrarse a) To cling stubbornly to an opinion or idea: Se aferraba a sus viejas costumbres.^[8][14]

Word family

• aferramiento
• aferrador
• desaferrar

Related words

• hierro
• ferro
• herrar
• Latin ferrum

Usage notes

The verb is regular today (aferro, aferra), but the diphthonged afierro was usual in the classical language.^[1][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. aferrar
3. ^ 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. 3, 355
4. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 59
5. ^ a b Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 179
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. aferrar
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. aferrar
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. aferrar
9. ^ 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. aferrar
10. ^ 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, 229
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 105
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 23
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 16
14. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. aferrar
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aferrar
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. aferrar
17. ^ 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, p. s.v. aferrar
18. ^ 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. aferrar
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 26