amargar

Forms

amargar (first-person singular present amargo, first-person singular preterite amargué, past participle amargado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin amāricāre (“to make bitter”), a Vulgar Latin verb found in the Itala Bible and in Christian writers, which Saint Jerome avoided as too vulgar.^[2][3][4][1] The DLE derives the Late Latin verb from amarāre (“to make bitter”);^[1] Wiktionary forms it from amārus (“bitter”) with the verb suffix -icō.^[4][1] The verb is also Portuguese amargar, Catalan amargar, Occitan amargar (in Languedoc) and the obsolete Italian amaricare.^[2][5][6]

Corominas explains the adjective amargo as the older amaro, reshaped under the influence of the verb; amargo and amarg are parallel.^[2] Cunha derives the Portuguese adjective from a Latin *amaricus.^[7]

De Vaan sees no Latin verb to which the adjective could belong.^[8] He notes a possible Proto-Indo-European *h₂h₃m-ro-, with uncertain links to Sanskrit and Germanic words meaning sour or raw.^[8] Wiktionary gives the root *h₃em- (“bitter, raw”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Academy's historical dictionary finds a romanised Latin amarigare in a Leonese document of the 9th or 10th century.^[9] In Spanish the verb appears in the first half of the 13th century: the Libro de Alexandre (c. 1240–1250) has Estas nostras fogueras amargan como fiel “these fires of ours are as bitter as gall”, and Berceo's Duelo de la Virgen uses it of grief: más me amarga esso que los colpes mortales “that grieves me more than the mortal blows”.^[9][10][2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb had the literal sense “to taste bitter” and the figurative “to grieve, cause sorrow”.^[10][9] Alfonso X's General estoria (c. 1275) uses it of food that goes bitter, the manna that would rot and turn bitter if kept overnight.^[11][9] The transitive “to make bitter” is recorded from the Baladro del sabio Merlín.^[9]

Autoridades (1726) defines it first as an intransitive verb of bitter taste, then figuratively of what displeases the mind, such as truths that are unwelcome; it marks “to grieve, be sad” as obsolete, and records an Aragonese use for “to offend, hurt someone”, with the proverb cada día olla amarga el caldo “stew every day makes the broth bitter”, of tedium from too much of a good thing.^[12] The Academy's 1884 edition gave both the literal and the figurative senses, each also reflexive.^[13] The modern DLE adds the reflexive “to become embittered” by frustration and failure.^[4] In Chile amargar el pepino means “to annoy, upset”.^[14]

Timeline

• 9th–10th century – romanised Latin amarigare in a Leonese document.^[9]
• c. 1240–1250 – amargan como fiel in the Libro de Alexandre.^[9][15]
• c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio: mucho me amargas “you grieve me much”.^[15]
• c. 1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it of food turning bitter.^[11]
• a. 1454 – Santillana's proverbs: Al ombre harto las çeresas le amargan “to the man who has had his fill, even cherries taste bitter”.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin amaro for “to make bitter” and amaresco for “to be bitter”.^[16]
• 1726 – Autoridades records the literal, figurative and Aragonese senses.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from amargo.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also reflexive) To taste bitter (amargo): Este café amarga demasiado.^[4][17]
2. (transitive) To give something a bitter taste; also figuratively, to spoil: La noticia le amargó la cena.^[4][1]
3. (transitive, also reflexive) To grieve or upset someone.^[4][17]
4. (reflexive) Of a person, to become embittered by frustration, failure or disappointment: No te amargues por eso.^[4][1]

Word family

• amargado

Related words

• amargo
• amargura
• amargor
• Latin amārus

Usage notes

Moliner records the saying a nadie le amarga un dulce “nobody minds a treat”.^[17] Amargarse la vida is “to make one's own life miserable”.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 233
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. amargo
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. amargar
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 401
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 477
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 206
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. amargar
10. ^ 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. 281
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. amargar
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 261
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. amargar
15. ^ 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. amargar
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 292
17. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. amargar