aplicar

Forms

aplicar (first-person singular present aplico, first-person singular preterite apliqué, past participle aplicado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin applicō (“to bring into contact, attach”), a learned word.^[2][1][3][4] The Latin verb is formed from ad- and plicō (“to fold”).^[5][1][6]

Spoken Latin carried the same verb into Spanish as allegar “to bring near, gather”, recorded from about 1140.^[7][8][1] It is also aplegar in Aragonese and Rioja texts, aplecar in the Glosas Silenses, Catalan aplegar, and Portuguese achegar and Galician achegar.^[7][9]

The sense “to apply (for a job, a grant)” of the Americas is a semantic loan from English apply.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Earlier hits in the CDH are Latin, such as aplicare in the Leges Adefonsi regis of 1208.^[12] The first Spanish hit is a charter of Charles II of Navarre of 1350, in the legal sense “to assign, award”: a fine is to be aplicada a nos “paid to us”.^[12] Juan Fernández de Heredia's translation of Eutropius (1377–1399) has the same sense, and his Gran crónica de España (1385) “to attribute”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Corominas dates the word to the 15th century.^[3][4] Covarrubias in 1611 explains it as fitting one thing to another and an example to one's purpose, and aplicarse al estudio as applying oneself willingly to learning.^[13] Autoridades adds the physical sense, to put one thing next to another, as a remedy to an ear in the Quijote, and the legal one, to award goods.^[14] The Academy in 1770 noted that it was said above all of remedies such as plasters.^[15]

In the Americas the verb has taken the senses of English apply: to apply in writing for a post, a grant or a university place, and to be valid or relevant (la regla no aplica).^[2][16][10] The DLE now lists both senses as Latin American.^[2]

Timeline

• 1208 – aplicare in a Latin text, the Leges Adefonsi regis.^[12]
• 1350 – the first Spanish record, in a Navarrese charter.^[12]
• 1377–1399 – Fernández de Heredia's Eutropius uses it of assigning money to the treasury.^[12]
• 1438 – the date that Corominas gives in his short dictionary.^[4]
• 1527 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records aplicarse al estudio.^[13]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines the physical, figurative and legal senses.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology applicare, from ad and plicare.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. To apply, put something on or in contact with something else: Aplica la pomada sobre la quemadura.^[2][1]
2. To use or put into practice a piece of knowledge, a measure or a principle to obtain an effect.^[2][1]
3. To apply what was said in general to a particular case, or what was said of one person to another.^[2]
4. To attribute a deed or saying to someone.^[2]
5. To assign, set aside;^[2] (law) to award goods or effects.^[2]
6. (Latin America, intransitive) To apply officially for something, such as a job, a grant or a university place.^[2][1][16]
7. (Latin America, intransitive) To be valid or relevant.^[2][10]
8. (reflexive) To apply oneself, work hard, especially at one's studies.^[2][1]

Word family

• aplicable
• aplicado
• aplicador
• aplicante
• aplicativo
• aplicación

Related words

• aplique
• allegar
• aplegar
• plegar
• Latin applico
• Portuguese achegar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. aplicar
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 580
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. plegar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. aplicar
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 600
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 51
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 87
10. ^ a b c Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. 38
11. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. aplicar
12. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. aplicar
13. ^ 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. 194
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 341
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 282
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. aplicar
17. ^ 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. aplicar
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 85