apetecer

Forms

apetecer (first-person singular present apetezco, first-person singular preterite apetecí, past participle apetecido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin appetere (“to reach for; to desire”), a learned word.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary treats it as inherited, from Vulgar Latin *appetēscere.^[1]

The Latin verb is formed from ad- (“to, towards”) and petō (“to make for, seek”).^[5][1] The OLD connects the simple verb with Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to fly; to fall”), the root of Ancient Greek πέτομαι (pétomai).^[6] pedir is the popular Spanish outcome of the simple verb.^[2]

The same Latin verb gave Logudorese appitire (“to wish”).^[7] In western Asturias, Asturian adevecer “to crave food or drink” is, for Corominas, a metathesis of an earlier form altered from this verb under the influence of avidez; he rejects García de Diego's link with the archaic Latin verb aveō (“to desire”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hits are in poems of Pedro Torrellas, copied in cancioneros of the mid-15th century: Donde apeteçen los ojos, sin otro cognosçimiento, allá va el consentimiento, “where the eyes desire, with no other knowledge, there consent goes”.^[8] DICCA-XV dates its first record to 1448–1465, while Corominas had found none before Fray Luis de León, about 1580.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija about 1495 distinguished apetecer lo onesto, Latin expeto, from desiring in general, appeto.^[9][4] Covarrubias in 1611 defined it simply as “to desire a thing”.^[10] Autoridades used it for wanting food as well as honours and dignities, and noted the ⟨z⟩ of apetezco.^[11] Cuervo still recorded only the transitive use, for physical and moral objects alike.^[12]

Today the transitive use “to desire” is formal, and most frequent in negative sentences.^[13][3] The common modern use is intransitive, with the thing desired as the subject and the person in the dative (me apetece “I feel like it”); VOX notes that it is used more in Spain.^{[3][13][14][1]}

Timeline

• 1460–1463 – a poem of Pedro Torrellas in a cancionero of these years has apeteçen.^[8]
• 1448–1465 – DICCA-XV's first record.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin expeto and appeto as its equivalents.^[9][4]
• c. 1580 – Fray Luis de León, the DCECH's first record.^[2]
• 1582 – first record from the Americas, in Chile.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as “to desire a thing”, from Latin appeto.^[10]
• 1726 – Autoridades extends it to whatever the mind desires.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del lat. appetĕre”, from ad and petĕre.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, formal) To desire, to long for: Nunca apeteció el poder.^[3][13][1]
2. (intransitive) Of a thing: to appeal to someone, to be fancied: Esta tarde no me apetece salir.^[3][13][1]

Word family

• apetecible

Related words

• apetito
• apetencia
• pedir
• English appetite

Usage notes

Apetecer is conjugated like agradecer, with ⟨zc⟩ before a and o: apetezco, apetezca.^[11][1] The intransitive use is mainly that of Spain.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 4, 457
3. ^ 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. apetecer
4. ^ a b c d e Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. apetecer
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. appetō
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. petō
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. appetere
8. ^ 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. apetecer
9. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 294
10. ^ 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. 193
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 337
12. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 1, 535
13. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. apetecer
14. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. apetecer
15. ^ 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. apetecer
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 77