allá

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin illāc (“by that way, there”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary and Menéndez Pidal derive it from ad (“to”) together with the same adverb.^[1][5] Corominas notes that these Latin adverbs were stressed on the last syllable, so the stress of the Spanish word is already Latin.^[2][3] He also traces the difference between this word and allí, from illīc (“there”), to the difference between their Latin sources.^[2]

The same Latin adverb is Portuguese lá, older alá, Galician alá, Catalan allà, French là and Italian là.^[6][7][8]

illāc is formed from illā (“by that way”) and the particle -ce.^[9] It belongs to the pronoun ille (“that”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy).^[2][3] There the Cid says: „si vos la aduxier d'allá” “if I bring it to you from there”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning allá has differed from allí by referring to a wider place (a region, a country, the other world) or to one less precisely located, and by expressing movement towards a place.^[2][12] For this reason it admits degrees, as in más allá and tan allá.^[13][14] The historical dictionary distinguishes uses of place, with or without a subjective shade (indifference, rejection), and uses of time, mainly for a remote past.^[13] In Argentina and elsewhere allá can mark movement towards the person addressed, as in ¿quién va allá?.^[2] In Yucatán it has been used for “here”.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has allá and alá.^[2][13]
• c. 1180 – the Auto de los Reyes Magos has iré alá.^[13]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses alla for “there”.^[16]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin illuc and isthuc as its equivalents.^[17]
• 1528 – the first record from the Americas, in Honduras, spelt ayá.^[18]

Meanings

Adverb

1. there, over there: in or near that place, less precisely than allí: Allá hace más frío.^[4][1]
2. To or towards that place: Mañana vamos para allá.^[4][1]
3. (after a preposition) That place: desde allá.^[4]
4. Stressing the distance of a place, before en: allá en el norte.^[4]
5. (of time) Pointing to a remote past, before en or por: allá por 1950.^[4][1]
6. In the other world, the hereafter.^[14]
7. In phrases expressing indifference to another's problems: allá tú, allá él.^[14][1]

Word family

• allacito
• pallá

Related words

• allí
• allende
• acullá
• Latin illāc
• Portuguese lá

Usage notes

El más allá is the world beyond the grave.^[4] In 1855 Baralt condemned más allá used after the French au-delà in the sense “beyond, longer than”.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 1, 225
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. allá
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. allá
5. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 44
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4265
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 3331
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1983
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. illāc
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. allá
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. 272
13. ^ 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. allá
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. allá
15. ^ Ramos y Duarte, Félix (1895), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Imprenta de Eduardo Dublán, p. 39
16. ^ 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. allá
17. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. allá
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. allá
19. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 76