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amenazar

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word amenazar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1218–1250 Fuero de Zorita de los Canes More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Latin minae
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin minae
Latin mināx
Latin minācia
Italian minaccia
Spanish amenaza
Spanish amenazar
From the same root
Latin minor ← minae
Latin mināciae ← mināx
Latin minaciter ← mināx

Pronunciation

  • /amenaˈθaɾ/, [a.me.naˈθaɾ], /amenaˈsaɾ/[1]

Forms

amenazar (first-person singular present amenazo, first-person singular preterite amenacé, past participle amenazado)[1] Old Spanish also had menazar, without the prefix, in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca, Berceo, the Rimado de Palacio and the Poema de Alfonso XI.[2] Old spellings include amenaçar and amenasçar;[1] amanazar is found in the 13th century and in modern Leonese and La Mancha speech.[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish amenaza + -ar, as the DLE and Corominas have it; the older verb Old Spanish menazar was formed in the same way on menaza (“threat”).[4][2][5] Wiktionary also allows a Vulgar Latin *admināciāre.[1] The noun continues Vulgar Latin minacia (“threat”), attested already in Plautus, which comes from mināx (“threatening”) and only indirectly from minae (“threats”).[2] The modern noun amenaza owes its initial vowel to the verb, helped by a wrong division of the old noun after the articles la and una.[2]

The same Latin derivative is Italian minacciare, French menacer, Catalan amenaçar, Portuguese ameaçar and Romanian amenința.[6] The Latin word for threats also meant “parts of a wall that stick out”; it goes back to *menā (“a projection”), from *men- (“to stand out”); the same root is in ēmineō (“to stick out”).[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bare verb comes first: the Navarrese Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211, in a copy of the early 13th century) has comol menazo el Criador “as the Creator had threatened him”.[8] The form with a- is in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250): a penalty for anyone who stops the scribe from reading the law amenazandolo, o por palauras asperas denostandolo “threatening him, or abusing him with harsh words”.[8] Berceo, c. 1235, writes of a king who Aviel' de fiera guisa ... amenazado “had threatened him fiercely”.[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept its sense “to threaten (someone with harm)”; from the start it was also said of things that announce a coming evil.[9][3] Autoridades recorded amenazar ruina, of a building in plain danger of falling, and the Academy in 1770 the impersonal amenazar lluvia, amenazar tempestad.[10][11] Covarrubias gave the proverb Los amenazados pan comen, because not every threat is carried out, and the Academy más son los amenazados que los acuchillados.[12][13]

An old sense “to drive cattle”, still listed by the DLE as obsolete, is explained by the threats and shouts with which herds are driven;[14] Corominas compares Catalan menar “to drive cattle”, from Latin minare.[4][14][2] Baralt in 1855 accepted amenazado en su honra “in danger of harm to his honour”, though he thought it French in origin.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum has the bare verb menazar.[8]
  • 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has amenazandolo.[8]
  • c. 1235 – Berceo uses amenazado in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (another edition reads menazado).[3]
  • 1254 – the Fuero Juzgo describes a figure that menaza people with a drawn sword.[9]
  • 1330 – Juan Ruiz: amenazar non deue quien quiere auer perdón.[3]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin intento and minor.[16]
  • 1543 – the first record from the Americas, in Panama.[17]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin minor and records Los amenazados pan comen.[12]
  • 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records amenazar ruina.[10]
  • 1884 – the Academy derives the verb from amenaza.[18]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To threaten: to let someone know by acts or words that one means to do them harm: lo amenazó con denunciarlo.[4][1][19]
  2. (transitive) Of something harmful, to be imminent for someone or something: la sequía amenaza las cosechas.[4][1]
  3. (transitive) Of a thing, to show signs that something bad is about to happen to it: el muro amenaza ruina.[4][10]
  4. (transitive, obsolete) To drive or lead cattle.[4]

Word family

  • amenazador
  • amenazante

Usage notes

The threat itself follows con (amenazar con el despido, amenazar con irse), and with some nouns, above all muerte, de: amenazar de muerte.[19] Of the weather the verb is used without a personal subject: amenaza lluvia “it looks like rain”.[19][20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 242
  3. ^ 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. amenazar
  4. ^ a b c d e f 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. amenazar
  5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. amenaza
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. minacia
  7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ 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. amenazar
  9. ^ 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. amenazar
  10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 267
  11. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 221
  12. ^ 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. 166
  13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 46
  14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. amenazar
  15. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 77
  16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 292
  17. ^ 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. amenazar
  18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 66
  19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. amenazar
  20. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 43
Cite this entry

“Amenazar.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/amenazar. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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