afrontar

Forms

afrontar (first-person singular present afronto, first-person singular preterite afronté, past participle afrontado)^[1] In the Middle Ages the stem vowel often diphthongised in the present (afruenta, afluenta, 11th–15th centuries, afruanta in 13th-century Aragonese), beside undiphthongised afronta, which was the only form from the early 16th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *affrontō (“to face, confront”), formed from ad (“to”) and frōns (“forehead, front”).^[3][1][4] Corominas treats it as a derivative of Old Spanish fruente “forehead” common to all the western Romance languages.^[5] He notes that this verb and afrentar were at first variants of one word with no difference of meaning.^[5] Wiktionary calls them doublets.^[1] García de Diego explains the form with ⟨e⟩ by the influence of the noun afruenta, the later afrenta.^[6]

The same formation is Italian affrontare, French affronter, Occitan afrontar, Catalan afrontar and Portuguese afrontar.^[4][7] De Vaan finds no plausible etymology for the Latin noun.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb appears first in Latin charters in the sense “to border on”, from one of Vic of 888: Afrontat ipsa terra de oriente “the land borders on the east”.^[2][5][9] The CDH's first record in a Spanish text, a deed of sale of 1240, has the same sense: ela primera afronta enno pelago de Latraue “the first (field) borders on the pool of Latraue”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Medieval Spanish used the verb for bordering on a property, for facing an enemy (afrontós con otro in the Libro de Alexandre), for summoning or warning someone in law, and for insulting.^[2][11][5] Nebrija gives Latin equivalents meaning “to put to shame”, “to accuse to one's face” and “to bring into danger”.^[12] Covarrubias in 1611 defines it as setting one thing opposite another, and for persons “to confront” witnesses.^[13]

Autoridades in 1726 has the legal sense “to summon, warn” as an old word no longer used, and the Academy's dictionary of 1770 marks all its senses as old.^[14][15] In 1855 Baralt asked for the old sense “to face” to return to use, but condemned “to brave, defy” as French.^[16] The Academy restored “to face the enemy” in 1869 and admitted “to brave” in 1884, which is now the main sense, as in facing a danger or a problem.^[17][18][3] The sense “to affront” went to afrentar.^[5][3]

In the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Venezuela afrontar means to hand over money that is owed without delay.^[19][20] Judeo-Spanish has it for facing danger or an enemy.^[21]

Timeline

• 888 – afrontat “borders on” in a Latin charter of Vic.^[2][5]
• 1240 – first record in a Spanish text, a deed of sale.^[10]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has afrontós “he faced”.^[11]
• c. 1260 – first record of the noun afruenta, the later afrenta, in the Partidas.^[5][9]
• late 15th century – the variant afrentar appears.^[5][9]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the sense “to confront” witnesses.^[13]
• 1770 – the Academy's dictionary marks the verb as old in all its senses.^[15]
• 1869 – the Academy restores “to face the enemy”.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy admits “to brave”.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. To place face to face; to confront people.^[3]
2. To face the enemy.^[3]
3. To face, tackle a danger, problem or difficult situation: Tendrá que afrontar los gastos del juicio.^[3][1]
4. (obsolete) To set one thing opposite another; also intransitive.^[3]
5. (obsolete) To affront (afrentar).^[3][1]
6. (obsolete) To summon, warn.^[3]
7. (obsolete) To reproach someone to their face.^[3]
8. (Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela) To hand over promptly money that is owed.^[19]

Word family

• afrontamiento
• afrontación

Related words

• afrentar
• enfrentar
• frente
• afrenta
• confrontar
• Latin frōns
• Italian affrontare
• French affronter

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. afrontar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. afrontar
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. *affrontāre
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 953
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2944
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 281
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. frente
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. afrontar
11. ^ 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. 168
12. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 286
13. ^ 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. 73
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 112
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 92
16. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 61
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 18
18. ^ 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. 28
19. ^ 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. afrontar
20. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 51
21. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. afrontâr