allegar

Forms

allegar (first-person singular present allego, first-person singular preterite allegué, past participle allegado)^[1] Older and dialect forms are alegar (12th–14th centuries), axegar (13th–14th centuries), ayegar, the Judeo-Spanish aliegar and alligar (Peru).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin applicō (“to bring near, attach; to put in to land”), formed from ad- and plicō (“to fold”).^[3][4][5][1] Corominas notes that in Late Latin and several Romance languages the verb came to mean “to head for, to arrive”.^[3] llegar has a separate source: he derives it from Vulgar Latin *plicare, a back-formation from the Latin compound.^[3] The learned doublet is aplicar.^[6][1] The same Latin verb is Portuguese achegar, Galician achegar, Catalan aplegar and Romanian apleca.^[7][6][1]

The Latin cluster pl- after the prefix became the Spanish palatal /ʎ/, and the -c- was voiced to /ɡ/; the Academy's 1770 dictionary already explained the word this way.^[8] Earlier writers had guessed otherwise: Covarrubias linked it with ligar “to bind”, and the Diccionario de Autoridades with alligō (“to tie”).^[9][10] In 1884 the Academy instead analysed it as the prefix a- added to the verb for “arrive”.^[11] According to Wiktionary, the simple verb is a back-formation from its compounds, ultimately from the root Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to plait”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the forerunner aplekare in the Glosas Silenses of the second half of the 10th century.^[3][6] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the verb for gathering men: after the battle the Cid sees cómmo·s' van allegando “how they come gathering round”.^[12][4]

Semantic evolution

Medieval Spanish used allegar both for gathering and for bringing near, and intransitively for arriving;^[13][2] Alfonso X's prose has “to collect, gather”, “to bring near”, “to add” and “to have carnal knowledge of”.^[13][2] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) defined it as gathering money, jewels and goods, and called the senses “to bring near” and “to arrive” little used; the latter, it said, was by then llegar.^[10] Farmers used it for heaping the threshed grain.^[14]

Covarrubias records allegar hacienda “to grow rich” and the proverb Allégate a los buenos, y serás uno de ellos “keep company with good people and you will become one of them”.^[9] Today the verb means to gather or collect, especially funds or means, to bring near, and to adhere to an opinion.^[5][15] In the Canary Islands it is still used for “to arrive”.^[16]

Timeline

• second half of the 10th century – the Glosas Silenses have aplekare.^[3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has allegando.^[12][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for collecting rainwater in cisterns.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin congrego and aggrego as equivalents.^[17]
• 1526 – first record in the Americas, in Cuba.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb Allégate a los buenos, y serás uno de ellos.^[9]
• 1770 – the Academy derives it from Latin applicare.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gather, collect.^[5][1]
2. To bring something near to something else; also reflexive, to approach.^[5][1]
3. To bring together, group.^[5]
4. To add.^[5][13]
5. To give or provide something to someone.^[5]
6. To obtain, get: allegar recursos “to raise funds”.^[5][15]
7. (intransitive, also reflexive) To arrive (llegar).^[5][1]
8. (obsolete, mostly reflexive) To have carnal knowledge of someone.^[5][13]
9. (reflexive) To adhere to an opinion or idea.^[5][1]

Word family

• allegado
• allegador
• allegadizo
• allegamiento

Related words

• llegar
• aplicar
• Latin applicō
• Portuguese achegar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. allegar
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 729
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. llegar
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. allegar
6. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 600
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 87
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 183
9. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 137
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 220
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 63
12. ^ 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. allegar
13. ^ a b c d e 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. allegar
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 56
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. allegar
16. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. allegar
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 290
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. allegar