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afuera

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word afuera

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1050 a charter of Sahagún, spelt adforas More words from the 11th century
Ultimate origins
Spanish a-Latin foras
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin forās
Aromanian fãrã
Spanish fuera
Spanish afuera
From the same root
Latin forāneus ← forās

Pronunciation

  • /aˈfweɾa/, [aˈfwe.ɾa][1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish a- + fuera, first in the older form with ⟨-s⟩, adforas.[2][3][1][4] García de Diego and Alonso derive it instead from Latin afforas.[5][6]

fuera continues fueras, from Latin forās (“out of doors, outwards”).[7][8] According to Corominas, the form without ⟨-s⟩ arose by analogy with adverbs that had variants with and without it, such as ante(s) and entonce(s), and it spread from the 13th century on.[7] The Latin adverb is formed on foris (“door”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuōr- (“door”).[9][7] Similar compounds are Portuguese afora, Aragonese afora, Extremaduran afuera and Romanian afară.[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the historical dictionary date the word from a document of Sahagún of 1050, in the form adforas.[7][2] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the modern form, placed after a noun as a preposition: por la boca afuera la sangre·l' salió “the blood came out through his mouth”.[11][12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the adverb meant “out, outwards” of movement and place.[6][13] Alfonso X's prose also uses oios afuera for bulging eyes, and en afuera “except”.[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as what is on the outside of something, the opposite of adentro.[14] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 records ¡afuera! and ¡afuera, afuera! to make people clear the way, and the obsolete afuera de “besides”.[15] The plural noun afueras “outskirts” is recorded in 1843, and in 1899 the fortification sense, the cleared ground round a stronghold.[16][17]

In Spain afuera is mainly used with verbs of movement, “towards the outside”, and fuera for the place; in the Americas afuera is used for both.[4][18] In Costa Rica it once meant “to the capital or a distant town”, and in the Dominican Republic it means “abroad”.[19][20] Puerto Rican cockfighting speech has pelear de afuera or de afuerita, of a cock that fights without grappling.[21]

Timeline

  • 1050 – adforas in a document of Sahagún.[7][2]
  • 1092 – aiffueras in the Fueros of Arguedas.[2]
  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has por la boca afuera.[11][2]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario writes a fuera “outwards”.[13]
  • c. 1500 – ahuera in the rustic speech of Juan del Encina's plays.[2]
  • 1537 – first record in the Americas, in Cartagena.[22]
  • 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as the opposite of adentro.[14]
  • 1817 – the Academy records the exclamation ¡afuera!.[15]
  • 1843 – the plural afueras “outskirts”.[16]
  • 1886–1893 – Cuervo's dictionary gives the word a long article on its constructions.[23]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. out, outside: out of the place where one is, or towards it: Los niños salieron afuera a jugar.[3][1]
  2. In public, or on the outside.[3]

Interjection

  1. get out!, clear the way!: used to make people leave a place or a post, or to show disapproval of a speaker.[3][4][1]

Word family

  • afuerino
  • afuerita
  • afueras
  • fuera
  • adentro
  • Portuguese afora

Usage notes

The feminine plural afueras means the outskirts of a town.[3] De puertas afuera means “outwardly, in public”.[1][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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. afuera
  3. ^ 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. afuera
  4. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. afuera
  5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 256
  6. ^ 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. 169
  7. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 970
  8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fuera
  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. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 130
  11. ^ 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. afuera
  12. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 16
  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. afuera
  14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, s.v. afuera
  15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 24
  16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 17
  17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 25
  18. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 54
  19. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. afuera
  20. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. afuera
  21. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. afuera
  22. ^ 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. afuera
  23. ^ 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, 248
Cite this entry

“Afuera.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/afuera. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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