apenas

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish a + pena, from the Old Spanish phrase a penas “with pains, with difficulty”, written as one word or two in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary instead has it inherited from Vulgar Latin *ad poenam, with an adverbial /-s/ added, as in mientras.^[1] pena is poena (“penalty, punishment”), itself taken from Ancient Greek ποινή (poinḗ, “fine”).^[2]

The same phrase is Portuguese apenas, Asturian apenes, Catalan a penes, French à peine and Italian appena.^[1][6][7] Houaiss takes the Portuguese word as an elliptical form of phrases like a duras penas.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in Berceo's works of 1220–1250.^[2][3] In the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a late 13th-century copy) a collection apenas aplegaron la media redempción “barely raised half the ransom”.^[9] The earliest sense is “with difficulty, painfully”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has all three main senses: “painfully”, “hardly, scarcely” (a penas se puede sofrir “it can hardly be borne”) and “as soon as”, in apenas acabara ysaac esta oration … quando entro esau.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 explained it as what is done with great difficulty and pain, gave the temporal use apenas huve llegado a mi casa, quando… and the phrases a malas or a duras penas.^[12] Autoridades also gave the senses “immediately after” and “so slight one may doubt whether it happened”.^[13]

In the 19th century apenas si “hardly” spread from French, as Bello noted; he did not reject it.^[14] The DLE lists the phrase as a way to avoid confusion with the temporal use.^[15] The temporal sense “as soon as” is more frequent in the Americas, and Latin American Spanish also uses apenas for “just, only now”.^[16][1]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first records, in Berceo.^[2][3]
• c. 1236 – the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos uses apenas “barely”.^[9]
• 1250–1279 – the Lapidario of Alfonso X writes a penas “hardly”.^[11]
• 1272–1275 – the General estoria uses apenas “as soon as”.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin vix, aegre and difficulter.^[17]
• 1535 – first record from the Americas, in Cartagena.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the temporal use and a duras penas.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as “with difficulty, hardly” and “as soon as”.^[19]

Meanings

Adverb

1. hardly, scarcely; before the verb: Apenas la recuerdo.^[15][1]
2. Hardly at all, after the verb with a negation: No ha dormido apenas.^[15][20]
3. barely, only, with an amount: Llegó hace apenas un mes.^[15]
4. (Latin America) Just, only now.^[1]

Conjunction

1. as soon as: Apenas salió el sol, empezamos a caminar.^[15][1][16]

Word family

• apenitas

Related words

• pena
• penar
• Portuguese apenas
• French à peine

Usage notes

Placed before the verb, apenas needs no negation (apenas come); after it, it takes no (no come apenas).^[20][16] The phrase apenas si means “hardly” and keeps the sentence from being read as “as soon as”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 4, 471
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pena
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 73
5. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. apenas
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 295
7. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. apenes
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. apenas
9. ^ 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. apenas
10. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 42
11. ^ a b c d 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. apenas
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. 192
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 334
14. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 28
15. ^ 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. apenas
16. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. apenas
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 294
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. apenas
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 84
20. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. apenas