aumentar

Forms

aumentar (first-person singular present aumento, first-person singular preterite aumenté, past participle aumentado)^[1] The Latinising spelling augmentar was common until the 17th century, beside aumentar.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin augmentāre (“to increase”), a learned word.^[2][5][6][1] The Late Latin verb comes from augmentum (“growth, increase”), from augeō (“to increase”) with the suffix -mentum.^[1][7] The DHLF notes that this noun replaced an older augmen.^[8]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewg-; its cognates include αὐξάνω (auxánō) and *aukaną, the source of English eke.^[1] Many Spanish words come from the same verb, among them autor, autoridad, auxiliar and augurio.^[9][1] The same Late Latin verb gave French augmenter (mid-14th century), Italian aumentare and Catalan aumentar, and the English augment.^[8][10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are Aragonese, in the works of Juan Fernández de Heredia: in his Historia troyana (1376–1396) grief and anger aumentauan “increased” King Priam's strength, and his translation of Orosius has augmentan.^[3][11] Corominas dates augmentar to Santillana and aumentar to the 15th century, and the BDELC to the second quarter of that century.^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

The verb was first transitive, “to make larger”, and reflexive.^[13] Its intransitive use, “to grow larger”, is found once in Guevara and became common from Moratín on;^[14] Baralt in 1855 still condemned it as a Gallicism and wanted se aumentaba or crecía.^[2][14] Terreros in the 18th century recorded the sense “to magnify”, of a microscope.^[15] The Academy marked the intransitive use as accepted in 1899.^[16] In rural Ecuador and Costa Rica the verb is used of animals breeding, and in the Dominican Republic it means “to put on weight”.^[17][18]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – first records, in Juan Fernández de Heredia's Historia troyana and his Orosius.^[3]
• c. 1425–1450 – Corominas's first record, augmentar, in Santillana.^[2][12]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin dictionary renders augmento by acrecentar.^[11]
• 1544 – first record in the Americas, augmentar, in Mexico.^[4]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines it as a transitive verb.^[13]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns the intransitive use as a Gallicism.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy accepts the intransitive and reflexive uses.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also intransitive and reflexive) To increase or enlarge: to make something greater in size, number or amount, or to grow greater: Han aumentado los precios del pan.^[5][1]
2. (transitive, also reflexive) To improve one's position, rank or wealth.^[5]
3. (Dominican Republic) To put on weight.^[18]

Word family

• aumentador
• aumentativo

Related words

• aumentación
• aumento
• Latin augeō
• English augment

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 413
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. aumentar
4. ^ a b 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. augmentar
5. ^ a b c 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. aumentar
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 794
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 551
11. ^ 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. aumentar
12. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aumento
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 485
14. ^ a b c Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 106
15. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 189
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 110
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. aumentar
18. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. aumentar