aparecer

Forms

aparecer (first-person singular present aparezco, first-person singular preterite aparecí, past participle aparecido)^[1] Old Spanish spellings include aparescer, apparecer, apparescer, apparexer and aparezer.^[2] Old Castilian and Judeo-Spanish also had aparir and aprir, from Latin apparere without the inchoative suffix.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin apparescō (“to begin to appear”), an inchoative verb in -scō formed on appāreō (“to appear, be visible”).^[4][1][5][6] Corominas notes that the Late Latin verb is found from about AD 300, in Calcidius; the DHLF says it is attested in the 3rd and 4th centuries, mainly as a word of Church Latin.^[7][8] The BDELC lists the Spanish verb among the derivatives of parecer, which continues the parallel Vulgar Latin *parescere.^[9][7]

The Latin verb is formed with ad- (“to, towards”) and pāreō (“to be visible”).^[1][10]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese aparecer, Galician aparecer, Catalan aparèixer, Occitan aparéisser and French apparaître.^[1][11][8] Old Catalan aparer and Old French aparoir continue the simple Latin verb instead.^[11][8][3] Nascentes takes the Portuguese verb for a semi-learned word.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid, about 1140, uses it in a prayer for the birth of Christ: en Beleem apareçist “you appeared in Bethlehem”, which Menéndez Pidal glosses as “to be born”.^[13][14][2] A second passage of the poem, ¡Estos casamientos non fuessen apareçidos!, has been read as “taken place”, “come about” or “begun”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish uses it above all for supernatural appearances: in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) God se apparecio a mi en Luça “appeared to me at Luz”, and in Berceo Apareciol la madre del Rey de Magestat.^[13][15] Alfonso X's prose has both “to show oneself” and “to be found”.^[16] Covarrubias defined it in 1611 as something presenting itself suddenly, and quoted Luke's apparuit Simoni.^[17] Autoridades noted that old books spelt it with pp after Latin, and added the senses “to be, seem” and “to be known, be found”.^[18]

In 1855 Baralt criticised as gallicisms se le apareció la idea “the idea occurred to him” and aparecer for “to show itself as”.^[19] The participle aparecido became a noun for the ghost of a dead person.^[6] Modern Spanish adds “to come into existence, be published” and “to turn up somewhere”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid, with the sense “to be born”.^[13][2]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar uses aparecerse of God appearing to Jacob (in a 13th-century copy).^[13]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes uses it of a lost animal that turns up.^[13]
• 1259 – Alfonsine prose uses it for “to be found, become evident”.^[16]
• 1575 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as something appearing suddenly.^[17]
• 1855 – Baralt lists it among words that carry gallicisms.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Latin apparere; by 1917 Alemany gives apparescere.^[21][22]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also pronominal) To appear, to come into view, usually causing surprise: Se le apareció un fantasma.^[4][1]
2. Of something lost or hidden, to turn up, be found: Por fin apareció mi cartera.^[4][23]
3. To come into existence or become known for the first time; of a book, to be published.^[4][24]
4. Of a person, to show up somewhere: Hace meses que no aparece por la oficina.^[4]

Word family

• aparecido
• desaparecer

Related words

• parecer
• aparente
• apariencia
• aparición
• comparecer
• Latin appāreō

Usage notes

Like the other verbs in -ecer it has aparezco, aparezcan.^[18][1] In Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua aparecer el peine means that something long suspected has come to light.^[25]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. aparecer
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
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. aparecer
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
6. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 535
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 400
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. apparaître
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. parecer
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. aparèixer
12. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. aparecer
13. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. aparecer
14. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 56
15. ^ 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. 329
16. ^ 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. aparecer
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. 1, 191
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 325
19. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 83
20. ^ 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. aparecer
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 82
22. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 142
23. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
24. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aparecer
25. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. aparecer