atrever

Forms

atrever (first-person singular present atrevo, first-person singular preterite atreví, past participle atrevido)^[1] Old Spanish used the form without a prefix, treverse, regularly until the mid-13th century;^[2] Berceo has only treverse.^[3] The old strong preterite was trovo, as crovo was of creer.^[3] Salamanca and León have astreverse and estreverse.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Old Spanish a- + trever (“to trust; to dare”), the older verb being used reflexively.^[3][4] Corominas takes the Old Spanish verb from a Latin phrase meaning “to attribute to oneself (the ability to do something)”, an etymology first given by Diez.^[3][4][5] This is from Latin tribuō (“to assign, grant”).^[3][6] Wiktionary starts from the compound attribuō (“to assign, allot”) instead, which makes the word a doublet of atribuir.^[1] García de Diego finds it uncertain which of the two Latin verbs gave the Old Spanish one, since the initial syllable can be lost by sound change.^[2]

Cuervo, troubled by the old variant ⟨estreverse⟩, proposed Middle High German streben (“to strive”) as the source, through Old French estriver.^[3][7] Corominas rejects this: the Germanic verb cannot explain the Spanish ⟨e⟩ or the conjugation in ⟨-er⟩, and the old preterite ⟨trovo⟩ is a natural outcome of the Latin perfect ⟨tribuit⟩.^[3] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 derived it from a Greek compound meaning “not to tremble”, and that of 1899 from German anstreben (“to strive for”).^[8][9]

The verb exists as Portuguese atrever and Catalan atrevir, but other Romance languages kept the descendants of Latin *ausāre (“to dare”).^[3][10] The Latin simple verb is formed from tribus (“tribe”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) has treverse, still transitive: the Moors near the Cid non se treven ganar tanto “do not dare to earn so much”.^[11][3] Corominas's first record of atreverse is Calila e Dimna (1251).^[3][4] The Poridat de las poridades (c. 1250) has it in the sense “to grow bold, lose respect”: when the king shows himself too often, the people atreuense a el.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Corominas traces the meaning from “to attribute a capacity to oneself” to “to trust oneself” and so to “to dare”.^[3] In Alfonso X's prose the verb means “to dare”, “to be insolent” and “to trust in”.^[12] Very early atreverse pushed osar aside, which became a literary word.^[3] Corominas links this to the high value placed on personal courage in the Hispanic world, which made it awkward to say that one did not dare.^[3] Later, atreverse was itself replaced by determinarse in Andalusia and Salamanca, and by animarse in Argentina.^[3]

Cuervo regarded the reflexive as the original use; the transitive “to embolden” spread by analogy in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[7] The Academy's 1770 dictionary cites Lope de Vega for it, and the proverb olla que hierve, ninguna mosca se atreve “no fly dares touch a boiling pot”.^[13] The DLE now marks the transitive use as obsolete and adds the sense “to compete, rival”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – treverse in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[11][3]
• c. 1236 – Berceo writes contra la aguijada cocear no me trevo “I do not dare kick against the goad”.^[11]
• c. 1250 – atreuense in the Poridat de las poridades.^[11]
• 1251 – atreverse in Calila e Dimna.^[3][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario: se atreuen a entrar into a cave.^[12]
• c. 1295 – the noun atrevimiento.^[3][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija translates atrever se as Latin audeo and confido.^[14]
• 1532 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[15]
• 1770 – the Academy's dictionary marks the transitive use as antiquated.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To embolden.^[6][1]
2. (pronominal, atreverse) To dare, make up one's mind to something risky: No se atrevía a saltar al agua.^[6][1]
3. (pronominal) To be insolent, fail in respect.^[6]
4. (pronominal) To compete, rival.^[6]
5. (pronominal, atreverse con) To take on a task, a dish or a person: Se atrevió con todo el pastel.^[16]
6. (pronominal, obsolete) To trust in someone.^[6]

Word family

• atrevido
• atrevimiento

Related words

• atribuir
• atributo
• osar
• Latin tribuō
• Portuguese atrever

Usage notes

The verb is used almost only as the pronominal atreverse; the transitive “to embolden” is obsolete.^[6][7] Corominas enters the word under atreverse.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 782
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 404
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. atreverse
5. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. atrevir
6. ^ 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. atrever
7. ^ a b c Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 1, 766
8. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 117
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 108
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 409
11. ^ 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. atrever
12. ^ a b 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. atrever
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 389
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. atrever
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. atrever
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. atrever