amanecer

Forms

amanecer (first-person singular present amanezco, first-person singular preterite amanecí, past participle amanecido)^[1] Old Spanish wrote amanescer, amanesçer and amanecer; texts also show amanasçer, amanicer, amaneser and amanezer, and a modern popular manecer is recorded in Chile.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *admānēscere (“to become morning”), a Hispanic Latin verb formed from māne (“in the morning”).^[4][5][6][1] A form without the prefix, manescere, already appears in a Spanish author of the 7th century.^[4][5] The Academy's earlier dictionary and the TDHLE analyse the word as the prefix ⟨a-⟩ and this unprefixed verb.^[7][2]

Corominas finds the same word outside Spanish only in Portuguese amanhecer, whose ⟨nh⟩ was taken from manhã (“morning”).^[4][8] García de Diego also lists Galician amencer and Asturian amanecer.^[9][10] The noun mañana comes from the same Latin adverb.^[4]

The Latin adverb is a derivative of mānus (“good”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-no- (“good”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) uses the verb with a dative of the person, as Latin did: after a night march out of Murviedro, amaneció a mio Cid en tierras de Mon Real, “dawn found my Cid in the lands of Monreal”.^[12][2][13]

Semantic evolution

Besides the impersonal “to dawn”, Old Spanish used the verb for being somewhere or in some state at daybreak: a falconry treatise of the late 13th century speaks of hawks that amanecieren sick.^[14][15] Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary of c. 1495 already lists amanecer as a noun beside the verb.^[16] Covarrubias in 1611 recorded the proverb por mucho madrugar no amanece más aína, said of those who press for something before its time.^[17] Autoridades in 1726 added the sense of turning up or appearing suddenly, as a notice posted overnight.^[18]

The Academy's 1884 dictionary separated the noun, “the time when day breaks”, and gave the phrase al amanecer “at dawn”.^[19] In most of Spanish America the verb, often reflexive, also means to stay up all night, usually at a party.^[20][6]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – amaneció a mio Cid in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[12][2]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar, in a 13th-century copy, has the angel tell Jacob que ya amanece.^[12]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos has ante que amanesciesse.^[2][12]
• 1250–1300 – the Libro de los animales que cazan uses the verb for being in a state at daybreak.^[14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records amanecer as a noun.^[16]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb por mucho madrugar no amanece más aína.^[17]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines the verb in three senses.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the noun a separate entry.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, impersonal) To dawn; to grow light: En verano amanece muy pronto.^[6][1]
2. (intransitive) To be in a place or state at daybreak; to wake up somewhere or somehow: Amanecimos en Sevilla.^[6][1]
3. (intransitive) Of a thing: to appear or be found at daybreak.^[6]
4. (intransitive, also figurative) To be born, to begin.^[6]
5. (intransitive, also reflexive) To turn up, especially unexpectedly.^[6]
6. (Latin America, often reflexive) To stay up all night.^[6][20]
7. (transitive, obsolete) To illuminate, light up.^[6]

Noun

1. Dawn, daybreak: the coming of daylight, and the time during which it comes.^[6][1]

Word family

• amanecida

Related words

• mañana
• Latin mane
• Portuguese amanhecer

Usage notes

The noun el amanecer is the infinitive used as a noun, with the plural amaneceres.^[1][6] Wiktionary gives the proverb as no por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. amanecer
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. amanecer
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 833
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mañana
6. ^ 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. amanecer
7. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. amanecer
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5294
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. amanecer
10. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. amanecer
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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. amanecer
13. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. amanecer
14. ^ a b 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. amanecer
15. ^ 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. 279
16. ^ a b 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. amanecer
17. ^ 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. 162
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 259
19. ^ 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. 64
20. ^ 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. amanecer
21. ^ 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. amanecer