amor

Forms

amor m (plural amores)^[1] In the 12th and 13th centuries, and rarely later, the word was also feminine, as in the Cid's por la mi amor.^[2][3] The phrase por mor de “for the sake of” keeps a shortened form mor.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin amor (“love, passion”); Old Spanish amor has the same form.^[5][6][7][8] The Latin noun is formed from amō (“to love”) with the suffix -or.^[9][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese amor, Galician amor, Catalan amor, Occitan amor, French amour and Italian amore.^[10][4] The French form, with ⟨ou⟩ instead of the expected Old French ameur, has been explained as a form of the Occitan love lyric.^[10]

De Vaan derives the verb from *ama- (“to take, hold”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₃mh₃- (“to take hold of”), the meaning having passed from “to take someone's hand” to “to treat as a friend”.^[11] Wiktionary gives the same root with a “perhaps”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to a document of 1100 and to the Cid; the Breve diccionario gives c. 1140.^[5][6] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) it is “affection”, as in „Con sus mugieres en braços demuestran les amor” “with their wives in their arms they show them love”, and also the favour of a lord towards his vassal.^[12][13] The poem has por amor de “for the sake of” in the battle cry „¡Feridlos, cavalleros, por amor del Criador!” “Strike them, knights, for the love of the Creator!”.^[14][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used amor for affection, for the favour of a lord, and in phrases such as por amor de caridad to beg a favour and de amor e de grado “willingly”.^[13][3] The DLE still lists the obsolete senses “will, consent” and “agreement”.^[7]

In 1611 Covarrubias noted that the plural amores was always taken in a bad sense, for lascivious loves, and recorded proverbs such as amor de niño, agua en cesto.^[15] The Autoridades defined love as an affection of the soul and named its kinds by their objects; it also gave amor as the name of a small flowering tree.^[16] Several plants are still named after it: amores is the bur parsley, and amor de hortelano and amor al uso are other plants.^[7] In the Americas amor seco names several weeds with burs.^[17]

Timeline

• 1100 – first record, in a document listed by Corominas.^[5]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid, with por amor de.^[14][6]
• 1208 – the Cortes of León, the first record without a later copy.^[14]
• 1220–1250 – first record of desamor.^[6]
• 1250 – first record of amoroso, and 1256 of amorío.^[6]
• 1438 – first record of enamorar.^[6]
• 1493 – the first record from the Indies: gifts given so that the natives “take love”.^[18]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin amor.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb amor de niño, agua en cesto.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, “Del lat. amor”.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. love: a strong feeling that leads a person to seek union with another.^[7][1]
2. Love for another person who attracts one, seeking to be returned.^[7]
3. affection or devotion to someone or something: amor a los animales.^[7]
4. Sexual desire.^[7]
5. Gentleness, care: Trataba a los enfermos con amor.^[7]
6. A loved person, a sweetheart, also in the plural.^[7][8]
7. Care and pleasure taken in a piece of work.^[7]
8. (in the plural) A love affair; caresses and endearments.^[7][1]
9. (in the plural; botany) The bur parsley.^[7]

Word family

• amorcillo
• amorío
• amoroso
• desamor
• enamorar
• enamorado

Related words

• amar
• amigo
• amistad
• Latin amor

Usage notes

Amor propio is self-esteem, and amor platónico a love without physical desire.^[1] The surname Amor is a separate name.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. amor
3. ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. amor
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. amor
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 232
6. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. amar
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. amor
8. ^ a b c Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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. ^ 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. 294
13. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 4
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. amor
15. ^ 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. 168
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 272
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. amor
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. amor
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 292
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 68