atender

Forms

atender (first-person singular present atiendo, first-person singular preterite atendí, past participle atendido)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote attender.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin attendō (“to stretch towards; to pay attention”), which Corominas explains as stretching the ear towards something and so making the mind attentive.^[3][4][5][1] Old Spanish atender is recorded from the Cantar de mio Cid on.^[3][6] The Latin verb is made of ad- (“to, towards”) and tendō (“to stretch, extend”), the source of tender.^[7][8][1]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese atender, Galician atender, Catalan atendre, Old Occitan atendre, French attendre and Italian attendere.^[9][10][11] Nascentes calls the Portuguese word semi-learned.^[12] According to the DHLF, Italian, Spanish and Old Occitan kept only the mental sense of the Latin verb, and the sense “to wait for” belongs to Gallo-Romance.^[13] Corominas, however, notes that medieval Spanish too often used it for “to wait”, as other Romance languages did.^[3]

De Vaan traces this verb to Proto-Italic *tend- and Proto-Indo-European *ten-d(h)- (“to stretch”), a present of the root *ten- that also gave teneō (“to hold”).^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

In its first record, the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), the verb means “to wait for”: „dos dias atendieron a ifantes de Carrión” “for two days they waited for the Infantes of Carrión”.^[15][6] About 1200 the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has David say „Mas quiero atender la mercet del Criador” “I would rather wait for the Creator's mercy”.^[15]

Semantic evolution

From the 12th to the 15th century “to wait for, await” was the main sense.^[6][2] Alfonso X's prose already shows the other senses of the Latin word: “to grant favourably” (1254), “to pay attention” and “to look after” (both 1280).^[16] Nebrija still gave atender as “to wait”, with Latin expecto, and the infinitive as a noun meaning “expectation”.^[17][18]

In 1611 Covarrubias defined it as “to notice, consider, think”, from Latin attendo.^[19] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave “to pay careful attention”, “to consider” and “to take care of”.^[20] The Academy's edition of 1770 called the sense “to wait” old, though still found in some modern authors such as Cervantes's Persiles.^[21] Baralt notes that Cervantes used it often in the Quijote in that sense, imitating the language of the books of chivalry.^[22] The printing sense, reading the original while the corrector reads the proof aloud, is in Gaspar y Roig.^[23]

In the Americas the pronominal atenderse means “to be seen by a doctor” in Nicaragua, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Chile and Uruguay, and in the United States the verb is used for “to attend” a place or event.^[24] Wiktionary also gives “to answer the phone”.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses the verb for “to wait for”.^[15][6]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar uses it for awaiting God's mercy.^[15]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas has the sense “to receive favourably”.^[16]
• 1280 – the fourth part of the General estoria uses it for “to pay attention” and “to look after”.^[16]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses atender “to wait” with Latin expecto.^[17][25]
• 1546 – the first record from the Americas, in a text from Santo Domingo.^[26]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as “to notice, consider”.^[19]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes the irregular present atiendo.^[20]
• 1770 – the Academy labels the sense “to wait” as old.^[21]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin attendere, ad and tendere.^[27]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grant or satisfy a request, wish or order; also used without an object: El ministro no atendió nuestra petición.^[5][28]
2. To wait for.^[5][29]
3. To pay attention, to apply the mind or the senses to something: Atiende, que solo lo voy a explicar una vez.^[5][1][30]
4. To take into account, to bear in mind: Hay que atender a la edad del paciente.^[5][28]
5. To look after, to care for someone or something, especially the sick or customers.^[5][28][1]
6. Of an animal or a person, to answer to a name (atender por): La gata atiende por Luna.^[5][30]
7. (printing) To read the original to oneself while the corrector reads the proof aloud, so as to compare the two.^[5]
8. (Latin America) To answer the telephone or the door.^[1]
9. (pronominal, Nicaragua, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Chile, Uruguay) To be seen by a doctor.^[24]
10. (United States) To attend a place or event.^[24]

Word family

• atendible

Related words

• atención
• atento
• tender
• entender
• Latin attendō
• French attendre

Usage notes

Atender is conjugated like entender, with ie in the stressed forms of the present (atiendo, atiendes), as the Diccionario de Autoridades already noted.^[20] Baralt condemned as a Gallicism the absolute participle atendido in the sense “in view of”.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 58
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 459
4. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tender
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. atender
6. ^ a b c d 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. 435
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 95
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 396
11. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. atendre
12. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. atender
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. attendre
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. atender
16. ^ 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. atender
17. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 298
18. ^ 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. 436
19. ^ 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. 238
20. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 463
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 380
22. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 102
23. ^ 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, 268
24. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. atender
25. ^ 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. atender
26. ^ 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. atender
27. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 115
28. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. atender
29. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. atender
30. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. atender