amar

Forms

amar (first-person singular present amo, first-person singular preterite amé, past participle amado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin amō (“to love”); Old Spanish amar has the modern form from the first texts.^[2][3][4][1] The same verb is Portuguese amar, Galician amar, Catalan amar, Italian amare and French aimer.^[5][6] The REW notes that although the word is general in Romance it belongs to the more refined language, and that Spanish and Portuguese often replace it with querer.^[6] Corominas likewise says that popular usage has long preferred querer bien and now the simple verb, and that in speech the word sounds literary or pretentious.^[2]

The origin of amō is uncertain.^[7][1] De Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *ama- (“to take, hold”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃mh₃- (“to take hold of”), with a shift from “to take by the hand” to “to regard as a friend”;^[7][1] Wiktionary gives this etymology as possible, and mentions Schrijver's view that it was a stative verb, because of the noun amor.^[7][1] Gómez de Silva suggests a nursery word *amma (“mother”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), where the Cid greets his lieutenant: „¡Venit acá, Albarfáñez, el que yo quiero e amo!” “Come here, Álvar Fáñez, you whom I hold dear and love!”^[2][9] The Tentative Dictionary lists it for loving persons and things, and for loving God.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish amar could also mean “to desire” and “to like doing”, both in the prose of Alfonso X.^[11] Berceo uses it for “to love”, “to want”, “to wish” and “to like”.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades called it “purely Latin”, and noted its use in poetry for things without feeling, the streams and the dawn, and for becoming fond of vice, danger or fame.^[13] The 1770 edition added “to esteem, appreciate”, and the 1869 edition the proverb a quien feo ama, hermoso le parece “love makes the ugly seem beautiful”.^[14][15]

Cuervo describes the range of the verb, from sexual passion to the goodwill one owes to one's enemies and the liking for things.^[16] Baralt objected to amar for mere liking (amar el juego), which he thought a French habit.^[17] The DLE keeps “to desire” as rare, and Moliner notes that everyday speech uses querer instead.^[4][18]

Timeline

• before 1042 – a Mozarabic kharja repeats tant' amare “so much loving”.^[19]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has el que yo quiero e amo.^[2][9]
• c. 1205 – the Razón de amor uses it.^[19]
• 1250–1279 – the prose of Alfonso X uses amar for “to love”, “to desire” and “to like doing”.^[11]
• c. 1270 – the Crónica general says that a king amava de coraçón la sancta fe.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives amar con passion as Latin amo.^[20]
• 1548 – the first records from the Americas, in Mexico City and Santo Domingo.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as to want or desire something.^[22]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a purely Latin word.^[13]
• 1855 – Baralt criticises its use for mere liking.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del lat. amare”.^[23]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To love: to feel love for someone or something: Amaba a su tierra por encima de todo.^[4][1][18]
2. (transitive, rare) To desire, wish for.^[4][1]
3. (transitive) To be fond of something, take pleasure in it, a use some purists criticised.^[13][17]

Word family

• amador
• amante
• amable
• amabilidad
• desamar

Related words

• amatorio
• amor
• amorío
• amoroso
• desamor
• enamorar
• amigo
• amistad
• enemigo
• Latin amō
• Portuguese amar

Usage notes

In everyday speech querer is far more common than amar, which sounds literary or solemn: te quiero beside the more emphatic te amo.^[2][18][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 232
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. amar
4. ^ a b c d 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. amar
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 474
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. amar
9. ^ a b c 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. 280
10. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 32
11. ^ 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. amar
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 150
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 260
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 216
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 45
16. ^ 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, 406
17. ^ a b c Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 77
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. amar
19. ^ a b 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. amar
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 292
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. amar
22. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 163
23. ^ 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