atrás

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish a- + tras (“behind”), the second part continuing Latin trāns (“across, beyond”).^[2][3][4][5] The REW and García de Diego set up a Latin phrase *ad trans, which Wiktionary follows, and which would also explain Portuguese atrás and Galician atrás.^[6][7][1][8] In Spanish the preposition passed from “beyond” to “behind”.^[2][9]

The Latin preposition goes back to *trānts and Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂-n̥ts (“crossing”), a participle;^[10][1] English through comes from the same root.^[10][1] In the 1880s Echegaray and Barcia derived the word from Latin retrō (“backwards”).^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the count riding off and looking back, afraid that the Cid would change his mind: tornando va la cabeça e catándos' atrás “he keeps turning his head and looking back”.^[13][14] Corominas dates the word to about 1200, in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca, and Berceo.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used it for movement and position to the rear, as in Berceo's tornar la cabeça atrás “to turn one's head back”.^[14][13] In Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary of 1492 it renders Latin retro.^[15] The Academy's 1817 dictionary gives a sense of time, “in the past”, and the colloquial hacia atrás “the wrong way round”; its 1899 edition adds the interjection ¡atrás!.^[16][17]

In the Canaries atrás de is used for detrás de “behind”, perhaps under Portuguese influence.^[18][19] In the Spanish of the United States para atrás copies English back (te llamo para atrás “I'll call you back”), and New Mexican Spanish has dar pa atrás “to give back”.^[20][21] In Mexico hasta atrás means “very drunk”.^[22] Tagalog borrowed the word as atras.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – catándos' atrás in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[13][14]
• c. 1215 – atrás faze la su tornada in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca.^[13][2]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos uses tornar la cabeça atrás.^[13][14]
• 1492 – Nebrija gives atras for Latin retro.^[15]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[23]
• 1607 – the derived verb atrasar.^[3]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records the sense of past time.^[16]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from a and tras and the interjection ¡atrás!.^[17]

Meanings

Adverb

1. back, backwards: towards the part behind someone or something: Miró atrás un momento.^[4][1]
2. behind: in the part to which one's back is turned.^[4][1]
3. In the area behind a point of reference, at the back: el patio de atrás.^[4]
4. In the back rows of a gathering; at the back of a place: Los de atrás no ven nada.^[4]
5. At the rear of a building, opposite its main front.^[4]
6. ago, in the past: unos años atrás.^[4][1]
7. Earlier in a text or speech.^[4]

Interjection

1. ¡Atrás!: get back!, stand back!^[4][1]

Word family

• atrasar

Related words

• atraso
• trasero
• tras
• detrás
• Latin trāns

Usage notes

Set phrases include marcha atrás “reverse gear”, cuenta atrás “countdown” and echarse atrás “to back out”.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 605
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tras
4. ^ 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. atrás
5. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. atrás
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ad trans
8. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. atrás
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. trás
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 541
12. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 479
13. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. atrás
14. ^ 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. 442
15. ^ 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. atrás
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 103
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 108
18. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. atrás
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. atrás
20. ^ Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. 39
21. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 34
22. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. atrás
23. ^ 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. atrás