aprobar

Forms

aprobar (first-person singular present apruebo, first-person singular preterite aprobé, past participle aprobado)^[1] The medieval and classical spelling was aprovar, as in Nebrija and Covarrubias.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin approbō (“to approve, endorse”), formed in Latin with ad- on probō (“to test; to approve”).^{[5][1][6][7][8]} Like probar, it takes the diphthong ⟨ue⟩ in the stressed forms of the present, as Autoridades noted.^[9]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese aprovar, Galician aprobar, Catalan aprovar, French approuver and Italian approvare.^[10][1]

The simple Latin verb is formed on probus (“good, upright”), which Wiktionary traces to Proto-Indo-European *pro-bʰH-wó-s (“being in front”), from *pro- (“forward”) and *bʰuH- (“to be”).^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a late 13th-century copy) uses it intransitively, of a flock that thrives under a good shepherd: aprovava la grey, cutiano mejorava “the flock throve, it got better every day”.^[11] The sense “to judge good” is in the Calila e Dimna of 1251: a king was eager en aprobar los filósofos “to esteem the philosophers”.^[12][8]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has four senses: to judge something good, to agree with a doctrine, to declare a person able, and, without an object, to turn out well or prosper.^[13] The last is the medieval intransitive use that Corominas also finds in probar, “to turn out to be”; it was later lost.^[14][13] Covarrubias defines the verb in 1611 as holding something good and sufficient, and gives reprovar as its opposite.^[3] Autoridades adds the approval of a book or other work.^[9]

The academic senses developed later: Salvá in 1846 adds admitting someone to an office or profession, and Alemany in 1917 notes the construction aprobar en una facultad for passing a student.^[15][16] Today the student also aprueba an exam or a subject.^[5][17] The old sense “to prove the truth of a fact” has fallen out of use.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1236 – Berceo, Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos: aprovava la grey.^[11]
• 1251 – Calila e Dimna, the date Corominas gives for the word.^[8][12]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it for declaring a person able.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin probo, approbo and comprobo for aprovar.^[2]
• 1568 – first record from the Americas, in Peru: aprovallas y consentillas.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it and names reprovar as its opposite.^[3]
• 1726 – Autoridades notes its irregular present with ⟨ue⟩.^[9]
• 1846 – Salvá records the sense of admitting someone to an office.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Latin approbare, from ad and probare.^[19]
• 1892 – Batres Jáuregui criticises its use for “to taste” in Guatemala.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To approve: to judge something or someone good or sufficient: El consejo aprobó el presupuesto.^[5][1]
2. To assent to a doctrine or an opinion.^[5]
3. To declare someone fit and competent, especially to pass a candidate in an examination.^[5][21]
4. To pass an exam or a subject: Por fin aprobé la química.^[5][1]
5. (obsolete) To prove the truth of a fact.^[5]

Word family

• aprobatorio
• desaprobar
• aprobación
• aprobado

Related words

• probar
• comprobar
• reprobar
• Latin approbō

Usage notes

In Central America, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and New Mexico aprobar is also used for probar “to taste”, a use the purists of Guatemala and Mexico condemned.^{[20][22][23][24]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. aprobar
3. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 199
4. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. aprobar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
8. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. probar
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 358
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 556
11. ^ 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. aprobar
12. ^ a b 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. 354
13. ^ a b c 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. aprobar
14. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 657
15. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 89
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 153
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aprobar
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. aprobar
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. 88
20. ^ a b Batres Jáuregui, Antonio (1892), Vicios del lenguaje y provincialismos de Guatemala, Guatemala: Encuadernación y Tipografía Nacional, p. 106
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. aprobar
22. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 119
23. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 31
24. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. aprobar