apoyar

Forms

apoyar (first-person singular present apoyo, first-person singular preterite apoyé, past participle apoyado)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Italian appoggiare (“to lean, support”), adapted and reshaped after the native noun poyo “stone bench”.^[2][3][1] Both are derived from Latin podium (“support, platform”), itself from Ancient Greek πόδιον (pódion, “base”), a diminutive of πούς (poús, “foot”).^[3][1][4] The Academy's dictionary calls the etymology disputed and compares the Italian verb; its 1884 edition still derived it from a Low Latin appodiare.^[5][6]

Corominas argues against the common view that all the Romance languages inherited a Vulgar Latin *appodiare: the verb is old only in French appuyer (12th century, Wace) and in Italian (Dante), Portuguese apoiar shows by its ⟨i⟩ that it is not native, and Catalan has no such verb except a recent Castilianism.^[2] The DELI and Nocentini still derive the Italian verb from that Vulgar Latin form.^[7][8] In Spanish the verb is foreign to the Middle Ages, missing from the glossaries of about 1400 and even from Nebrija.^[2] It came in at the end of the 16th century as a term of architecture.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas gives isolated records of 1496 and 1506, one of 1544 and the dictionary of Sánchez de la Ballesta (1587) as the first; the earliest literary authority is Sigüenza's Vida de San Jerónimo (1595), which speaks of the column on which the life of the community rested, and of the Church as the column on which truth rests.^[2][3] In 1570 Cristóbal de las Casas still rendered Italian appoggiare by llegar, arrimar “to bring near, lean against”, without accepting apoyar as Spanish.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Corominas describes the verb as a technical word of architecture that widened its use only in modern times, under French and Italian influence, and remains poor in idiomatic senses.^[2][3] Covarrubias (1611) already gives the figurative “to favour, protect, sustain someone”, explaining it by the poyo that leans against a wall and holds it up.^[9] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) defines it as propping up a building with shores, and figuratively as supporting or confirming, with an example from the Quijote.^[10]

The Academy's 1884 dictionary has the main modern senses: making one thing rest on another, favouring, confirming an opinion, and a horse lowering its head.^[6] The noun apoyo is first recorded in Sigüenza (1600), and the musical apoyatura (1890) is a more recent Italianism.^[2]

Timeline

• 1496 – the first isolated record Corominas gives.^[2][1]
• 1570 – Cristóbal de las Casas renders Italian appoggiare without using apoyar.^[2]
• 1587 – Sánchez de la Ballesta's dictionary records the verb.^[2][3]
• 1595 – Sigüenza uses it of a column that holds something up.^[2]
• 1600 – the noun apoyo appears in Sigüenza.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives the sense “to favour, protect”.^[9]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as propping up a building.^[10]
• 1890 – the Italian musical term apoyatura is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lean or rest something on something else: Apoyó la bicicleta contra el muro.^[5][1]
2. To base, to ground an argument or opinion on something.^[5]
3. To support, favour or help a person, cause or party.^[5][1]
4. To confirm or back up an opinion or doctrine.^[5]
5. (horse riding) Of a horse, to lower its head, bringing the muzzle towards the chest.^[5]
6. (military) Of a force, to protect and assist another.^[5]
7. (intransitive, also reflexive) To rest or bear on something; to lean on: Se apoyaba en una muleta.^[5][1]
8. (phonetics) Of a sound, syllable or word, to be pronounced with more stress or length.^[5]

Word family

• apoyatura
• apoyador
• apoyo

Related words

• poyo
• Italian appoggiare
• French appuyer
• Latin podium

Usage notes

The DLE has a second apoyar “to draw the milk that rushes into the breast when a child suckles”, which Corominas considers a separate, native word: it is in Nebrija (apoyar la teta el niño), related to Catalan pujar “to rise” and Portuguese apojar “to fill with milk”, from a Vulgar Latin *podiare (“to rise”); its noun is apoyadura or apoyo “flow of milk”.^[2][3][5] In Mexico, Honduras, Puerto Rico and Uruguay this verb is used of making a cow give milk a second time by bringing the calf to her.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 301
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. apoyar
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 75
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. apoyar
6. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 87
7. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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. 196
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 351
11. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. apoyar