ayudar

Forms

ayudar (first-person singular present ayudo, first-person singular preterite ayudé, past participle ayudado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote aiudar and adiudar beside ayudar.^[2][3] Old Leonese audar is in the Libro de Alexandre, and a Pyrenean form is ayutar.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin adiūtō (“to help”), the frequentative of adiuvō, itself formed from iuvō (“to help”); Old Spanish ayudar has the same form from the Cid on.^{[5][6][7][1][8]} The same Latin verb is Portuguese ajudar, Asturian ayudar, Catalan ajudar, Occitan ajudar, French aider, Italian aiutare and Romanian ajuta, and Ladino ayudar.^[9][4][1]

De Vaan derives the simple verb from Proto-Italic *ijow- and a present Proto-Indo-European *h₁i-h₁euH- “to help”, cognate with Sanskrit and Avestan verbs meaning “to help, protect”.^[10] Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain: the first-conjugation verb may be an iterative of an older third-conjugation form or a back-formation from the compound.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy): „nós vos ayudaremos” “we will help you”, and „Con los de la frontera que vos aiudarán” “with the men of the frontier who will help you”.^[5][11][12] The noun ayuda is in the Cid too.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the verb both transitively and intransitively, “to give help” (Juan Ruiz).^[3] The DCECH adds the 14th-century Aragonese proverb qui's muda, Dios le ayuda, where le can only be an indirect object.^[5] Covarrubias in 1611 has the proverb ayúdame aquí, estorba, said of meddlers who get in the way instead of helping.^[13] Autoridades records ayudar a misa “to serve at Mass” (Cervantes) and la fortuna ayuda a los osados “fortune favours the bold”, from the Celestina.^[14] The Academy's 1884 edition gives the proverb ayúdate, y ayudarte he “help yourself and I will help you”.^[15]

The noun ayuda also came to mean “enema”, as Catalan ajuda does;^[11] Basque aiuta in that sense is from Romance.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the verb and the noun ayuda in the Cid.^[5][6][11]
• 1208 – ayudadas in the Cortes de León, the first record not known from a later copy.^[11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for “to cooperate”.^[16]
• 1438 – Juan de Mena uses the learned coadyuvar.^[5][6]
• 1525 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1607 – the derivative ayudante.^[6]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin adiuvo and records a proverb.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records ayudar a misa.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin adiutare.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To help, cooperate: to work with someone so that he or she achieves something: Me ayudó a pintar la cocina.^[7][1]
2. To aid, succour someone in danger or need.^[7][15]
3. To give financial help.^[18]
4. (horse riding) Of a rider, to use the aids to make his or her will known to the horse.^[18]
5. (reflexive) To make an effort, to use the means at hand to achieve something.^[7]
6. (reflexive) ayudarse de: to make use of someone's or something's help: Se ayudó de un bastón.^[7]

Word family

• ayuda
• ayudante
• ayudantía
• ayudador

Related words

• coadyuvar
• coadjutor
• jocundo
• adjutor
• Latin adiūtō
• Portuguese ajudar

Usage notes

Ayudar a misa is “to serve at Mass”.^[14] The Academy's 1884 edition records the proverb ayúdate, y ayudarte he.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ayudar
3. ^ 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. 65
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 161
5. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 428
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ayudar
7. ^ a b c d e 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. ayudar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. adiūtō
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 172
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. iuvō
11. ^ 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. ayudar
12. ^ 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. 467
13. ^ 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. 92
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. ayudar
15. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 125
16. ^ 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. ayudar
17. ^ 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. ayudar
18. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. ayudar