arrogar

Forms

arrogar (first-person singular present arrogo, first-person singular preterite arrogué, past participle arrogado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin arrogō (“to claim for oneself, appropriate”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from ad- (“to”) and rogō (“to ask”).^[5][1] In Latin it was a term of law and politics: it meant to put an extra question, to appoint someone as an associate of a magistrate, to adopt a person who was his own master, and with sibi (“to oneself”) to claim something for oneself.^[5][6][7]

Corominas lists it with abrogar, derogar, interrogar and prorrogar among the learned words of the family of rogar, the inherited verb from the same Latin one.^[3][4] The noun arrogación is older, from the Siete Partidas of Alfonso X, and arrogante and arrogancia are recorded in the 15th century.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates arrogarse to about 1600, from the Academy's historical dictionary, with the sense “to appropriate”.^[3][4] Earlier hits for arrogar in the CDH are other words: a rogar “to ask” written as one word (enbio arrogar a hercoles “he sent to ask Hercules”, c. 1350), or Latin arrogo, which Nebrija in 1495 gives as the equivalent of adoptar al libre de padre “to adopt one free of a father”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The Academy's dictionaries of the 19th century defined the verb as attributing or appropriating what belongs to others, and the pronominal arrogarse as claiming immaterial things such as jurisdiction or a faculty, said above all of judges who usurp the jurisdiction of others.^[9][10] Gaspar y Roig added that the transitive use was hardly found, and gave the legal sense of adopting as a child one who is not one's own.^[11] From 1869 the Academy put this legal sense first, adopting as a child one who has no father or is no longer under paternal authority.^[12][13] Today's Academy dictionary keeps only the rare transitive sense “to attribute” and the pronominal one, which is the common use.^[2]

In Judeo-Spanish the form arrogar is the inherited verb “to pray, to beg”, from rogar.^[14]

Timeline

• 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin arrogo for “to adopt one free of a father”.^[8]
• c. 1600 – first record of arrogarse “to appropriate”.^[3][4]
• 1773 – in Buenos Aires someone se arrogó a whole project; the first record from the Americas.^[15]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as appropriating or usurping what belongs to others.^[9]
• 1869 – the Academy gives the legal sense “to adopt as a child” first.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology: Latin arrogare, from ad and rogare “to ask”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, rare) To attribute or assign something (adjudicar).^[2][1]
2. (law, dated) To adopt (adoptar) as one's child an orphan or a person no longer under a parent's authority.^[16][13]
3. (pronominal, arrogarse) To arrogate to oneself: to claim rights, powers or honours without good reason: El comité se arrogó el poder de nombrar a los jueces.^[2][16][1]

Related words

• arrogación
• arrogancia
• arrogante
• rogar
• abrogar
• derogar
• prorrogar
• Latin arrogō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. arrogar
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, 49
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rogar
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto
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. arrogar
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 91
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 68
11. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 240
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 73
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 103
14. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. arrogar
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. abrogar
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. arrogar