arribar

Forms

arribar (first-person singular present arribo, first-person singular preterite arribé, past participle arribado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *arripāre (“to reach the shore”), formed from ad- (“to”) and rīpa (“bank, shore”).^[2][3][4] Medieval Latin texts have adripare (“to land”).^[5][1] In Spanish terms it is a- with riba (“bank”) and the verb ending -ar.^[1] The Diccionario de Autoridades already noted the change of Latin /p/ to /b/.^[6]

The same word is Portuguese arribar, Galician arribar, Catalan arribar, Occitan arribar and French arriver, the source of Italian arrivare.^[4][7] The general sense “to arrive” belongs to Catalan and to Gallo- and Italo-Romance; in Castilian it is found in old texts and in the Americas.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy): „arribado an las naves, fuera eran exidos” “the ships have come in to land, they had gone ashore”.^[3][8][9] The poem also uses it for a traveller reaching the bank of a river.^[10][11] Berceo has it of the dead washed ashore: „Si verien de los muertos algunos arribar”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X uses arribar for a ship reaching port, for arriving by land, and for recovering from harm, a sense the DLE still records as colloquial.^[13][2] Nebrija glosses it como nave with Latin applico and appello, and por allegar with accedo and pervenio.^[14][15] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives a ship's arrival in port, whether its own or one it is driven to by storm or by fear of enemies, and by extension arriving anywhere; it also records a sense “to go up, reach the top”, which it derives from arriba.^[6] The Academy's 1770 edition says the word had spread from ships to arriving by land.^[16]

In much of Central America, the Caribbean, Colombia, Venezuela and Uruguay arribar is a common word for arriving, usually by plane; in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico it also means to reach a result, and in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to turn a given age.^[17] In Argentina and Puerto Rico it is said of thin animals that put on weight, and in New Mexico of a person who prospers.^[18][19][20]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy) uses it of ships coming to land.^[8][9]
• 1180 – a document cited by Cuervo.^[3]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it for a ship reaching port.^[13]
• 1280 – the General Estoria uses it for arriving by land.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's arribar como nave.^[15]
• 1519 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[21]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “to arriue”.^[22]
• 1770 – the Academy derives it from Late Latin adripare “to reach the shore”.^[16]
• c. 1800 – the noun arribo first appears, in Jovellanos.^[3][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (nautical) Of a ship: to reach port, to put in: El velero arribó a Vigo de madrugada.^[2][1]
2. (literary) To arrive somewhere by land; also reflexive.^[2][1]
3. (colloquial) To recover one's health or fortune, to convalesce.^[2]
4. (colloquial) To manage to get what one wants.^[2]
5. (nautical) To let the ship go with the wind; of a ship, to turn so as to widen the angle between keel and wind, to bear away.^[2]
6. (obsolete, transitive) To bring or lead.^[2]
7. (Central America, Caribbean, Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay) To arrive somewhere, usually by plane.^[17]
8. (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico) To reach a result or a conclusion.^[17]
9. (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador) To turn a given age.^[17]
10. (Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Argentina) Of people or animals: to get better, to put on weight.^[17][19][18]

Word family

• arribo
• arribada
• arribazón
• arribaje

Related words

• arriba
• riba
• ribera
• Latin rīpa
• French arriver
• Portuguese arribar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. arribar
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, s.v. riba
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 412
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. arripare
8. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. riba
9. ^ 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. 391
10. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 69
11. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 51
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 165
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. arribar
14. ^ 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. arribar
15. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 297
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 336
17. ^ a b c d e Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. arribar
18. ^ a b Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 34
19. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. arribar
20. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 32
21. ^ 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. arribar
22. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 70