agotar

Forms

agotar (first-person singular present agoto, first-person singular preterite agoté, past participle agotado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eguttāre (“to drain to the last drop”), a derivative of Latin gutta (“drop”).^[2][3][4][1] The DTME analyses the Latin verb as ex- with the noun and the verb ending.^[5] De Vaan gives no etymology for the Latin noun.^[6]

The same verb gave French égoutter, Occitan agoutá, and Catalan esgotar and Portuguese esgotar “to drain, dry”.^[2][7] Pottier took the verb as a Spanish derivative of gota;^[2] Corominas rejects this, because the different prefixes of the Romance forms (⟨es-⟩ in French, Catalan and Portuguese, ⟨a-⟩ in Spanish and Occitan) point to a common Vulgar Latin verb whose rare initial ⟨e-⟩ was partly replaced, as in enmendar.^[2] The Academy's dictionary, which gave the Vulgar Latin verb in 2001, now calls it a derivative of the Spanish noun.^[4][8] Autoridades and the 1884 edition had already explained it as the prefix ⟨a-⟩ with the noun.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen (1236–1246, known from an 18th-century copy) the Virgin is told: Madre, será aína el vaso agotado, “Mother, the cup will soon be drained”.^[11][12] In his Milagros the word is already figurative: en mí non se agote la tu grant pïadat, “let not your great mercy run dry for me”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was to empty a vessel or a place of its water to the last drop.^[12][13] Covarrubias in 1611 gave it for wells and jugs, and already the figurative agotar la paciencia and agotar la hazienda, “to squander one's estate”.^[14] Autoridades extended it to the understanding and reason.^[9] The Academy's 1884 edition added the general sense “to use up entirely”.^[10]

Today the verb also means to work out a mine, to use up anything (agotarse una edición “to sell out”), and to tire someone out completely.^[8][15][1] The derivatives agotamiento (1604) and agotador (1607) belong to the senses of exhaustion.^[3]

Timeline

• 1095 – a charter of Eslonza has the Latinised form se agotauerit.^[16]
• 1236–1246 – Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen (in an 18th-century copy).^[11][12]
• 1246–1252 – Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora uses it figuratively.^[11]
• 1438 – the Corbacho speaks of draining a great river with a basket.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it “to leave no drop”, Latin exhaurio.^[17]
• 1587 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, for pumping water out of a ship.^[18]
• 1604 – agotamiento; 1607 – agotador.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records agotar la paciencia.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy adds “to use up entirely”.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drain all the liquid from a container (also reflexive).^[8][15]
2. To work out a mine or deposit completely.^[8]
3. To use up, exhaust entirely; reflexive, to run out or sell out: El primer tiraje del libro se agotó en una semana.^[8][1]
4. To tire out completely; reflexive, to wear oneself out.^[8][1][15]

Word family

• agotador
• agotamiento
• agotable
• agotado
• inagotable

Related words

• gota
• French égoutter
• Portuguese esgotar

Usage notes

Old Spanish also had agotar “to whip”, a variant of azotar: Juan Ruiz has fueronlo agotar, and Percyvall in 1591 still translates it “to whip”.^[19][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 73
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. agotar
4. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. agotar
5. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. agotar
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *eguttare
8. ^ a b c d e f 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. agotar
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 119
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 30
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. agotar
12. ^ a b c 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. agotar
13. ^ 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. 172
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. 78
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. agotar
16. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. agotar
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 286
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. agotar
19. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 79
20. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 53