apaciguar

Forms

apaciguar (first-person singular present apaciguo, first-person singular preterite apacigüé, past participle apaciguado)^[1] Old spellings include apaziguar, appaziguar, apasiguar, apazigar, apacigar, apacigoar and apassiguar.^[2][3] Old Spanish also had paciguar, in the Primera crónica general, with the noun paciguamiento in the Rimado de Palacio.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pācificō (“to make peace; to appease”),^[5][1][6][7] with the prefix ad- added: the TDHLE and Segura Munguía start from *adpācificāre, and Moliner from the prefix a- and the Latin verb.^[2][8][9] Corominas calls it the more popular form of the word whose learned form is pacificar, first in Santillana.^[4] Gómez de Silva relates its ending to -ificar.^[10]

Corominas also records a variant apazguar, whose participle apazguado meant “one who has made peace with his enemy”; crossed with pacato, it probably gave pazguato “simpleton”.^[4] The TDHLE finds that variant only as a participle used as a noun, in a letter of Alfonso X of 1282, and calls its modern uses pastiches.^[2]

The same Latin verb gave Catalan apaivagar.^[7][6][11] Houaiss takes Portuguese apaziguar, recorded from 1546, from Spanish.^[12] The Latin verb is formed from pāx (“peace”) with -ficō (“-making”);^[1][13] Plautus already has the deponent “to be reconciled”.^[1][13] The noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to join, attach”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas (1254), in the intransitive sense “to make peace”: aquella lid será buena pora amas las partidas & appaziguarán “that battle will be good for both sides, and they will make peace”.^[2][14] The Bocados de oro (before 1250, known from a 15th-century copy) has the reflexive: puna en apasiguarte con el tu enemigo “strive to make peace with your enemy”.^[2][15]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive and reflexive sense “to make peace (with someone)” came first.^[2] By about 1260 the Espéculo uses it transitively of pacifying a land in revolt, and Alfonso X's General estoria (1275) of the sea growing calm.^[15][16] Covarrubias (1611) defined it as bringing peace, calming disturbances and reconciling those who had quarrelled, and Autoridades (1726) traced it to Latin pacificare.^[17][18]

Terreros (1786) adds “to calm anger” and “to lessen an ill”, and Salvá (1846) gives the familiar apaciguar el mal.^[19][20] In the Americas the word appears from 1517, in Puerto Rico, for the pacification of Indigenous peoples.^[21] Today it is used of calming people, feelings and pain.^[9][22]

Timeline

• before 1250 – the Bocados de oro (15th-century copy): apasiguarte.^[2][15]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas: appaziguarán “they will make peace”.^[2]
• c. 1260 – the Espéculo: apaziguar la tierra “to pacify the land”.^[15]
• 1275 – the General estoria uses it of the sea growing calm.^[16]
• 1282 – apazguado in a letter of Alfonso X.^[2]
• end of the 13th century – Corominas's date, from the Academy's historical dictionary.^[4]
• 1517 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines apaziguar.^[17]
• 1726 – Autoridades derives it from Latin pacificare.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pacify: to restore peace between people or groups in conflict;^[5][9][1] (reflexive) to make peace.^[5][9][1]
2. To calm, soothe;^[5][22][1] (reflexive) to calm down: Al final la tormenta se apaciguó.^[5][22][1]
3. To ease a pain or suffering.^[9]

Word family

• apaciguador
• apaciguamiento

Related words

• paz
• pacificar
• pazguato
• Latin pacifico
• Catalan apaivagar

Usage notes

It is conjugated like averiguar, with ⟨gü⟩ before ⟨e⟩: apacigüe, apacigüé.^[9][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. apaciguar
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. apaciguar
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 444
5. ^ a b c d e 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. apaciguar
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4731
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6136
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 528
9. ^ a b c d e f Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. apaciguar
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. apaciguar
11. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. apaivagar
12. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. apaziguar
13. ^ 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
14. ^ 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. apaciguar
15. ^ 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. apaciguar
16. ^ 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. 326
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. 190
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 320
19. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 121
20. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 81
21. ^ a b 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. apaciguar
22. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. apaciguar