ayunar

Forms

ayunar (first-person singular present ayuno, first-person singular preterite ayuné, past participle ayunado)^[1] The Fuero Juzgo has ieiunar, geyunar, geiunar and iaiunar.^[2] Old Spanish also wrote aiunar.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *iaiunare (“to fast”), the Vulgar Latin form of ieiunare.^[4][5][6][1] Wiktionary explains the Vulgar Latin vowel from iaiūnus, the older form of the adjective, or by dissimilation.^[1] The Latin verb is formed from Latin ieiūnus (“fasting, hungry”).^[1][7] The noun ayuno is formed from the verb.^[4][5]

The same verb is Portuguese jejuar, Catalan dejunar, Occitan jejunar, French jeûner, Italian digiunare and Romanian ajuna.^[8][9] The REW leaves open whether the ⟨a⟩ of the Spanish and northern Italian forms goes back to the Plautine spelling ⟨jajunare⟩ or arose in Romance.^[8]

De Vaan also takes the form with ⟨iai-⟩ as the older one; following Forssman he connects it with Proto-Indo-European *Hieh₂ǵ- (“to sacrifice”), the root of Ancient Greek ἅγιος (hágios, “holy”).^[7] The OLD calls the origin unknown.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in the story of Joseph's cup: bevie con el quando ayunava “he drank from it when he was fasting”.^[11][3] Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236) speaks of Christ going into the desert quando ayunar quiso “when he wished to fast”.^[11][12] The DCECH, without these texts, dates it to the Fuero Juzgo of 1241.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the three senses of today: to go without food, to keep a fast of the Church, and figuratively to be deprived of something.^[13] Autoridades in 1726 added ayunar a pan y agua, to live on bread and water, and the Academy in 1770 ayunar al traspaso, a fast from Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday.^[14][15] The Academy's dictionaries recorded the proverb harto ayuna quien mal come “he who eats badly fasts enough” from 1817.^[16] The phrase ayunarle a alguien, to fear or respect someone, is in the Quijote and in the Academy's dictionary from 1884; the DLE now marks it obsolete.^[17][18][6] From the verb come ayuno and desayunarse, “to break one's fast”, first recorded in 1490.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar, in a 13th-century copy.^[11]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos.^[11]
• 1241 – the Fuero Juzgo, the DCECH's first record.^[4]
• 1256 – the noun ayuno is first recorded, according to the BDELC.^[5]
• 1490 – desayunarse is first recorded.^[5]
• 1529 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[19]
• 1726 – Autoridades records ayunar a pan y agua.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary records ayunarle a uno “to fear or respect someone”.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To fast; to go wholly or partly without food or drink: Tuvo que ayunar antes del análisis.^[6][1]
2. (intransitive) To fast by religious precept, keeping the ayuno of the Church.^[6][20]
3. (intransitive) To deny oneself, or be denied, some pleasure.^[6]

Word family

• ayuno
• desayunar
• desayuno

Related words

• yeyuno
• Latin ieiūnus
• Portuguese jejuar
• English jejune

Usage notes

The phrase ayunar después de harto, “to fast after a full meal”, is said of those who make a show of self-denial while living in comfort; the DLE marks it as rare.^[6][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1908–1914), Tesoro de la lengua castellana: origen y vida del lenguaje, 12 vols., Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. s.v. ayunar
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ayunar
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 428
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ayuno
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. ayunar
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. jejunare
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3597
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ayunar
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 175
13. ^ 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. ayunar
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 510
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 414
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 110
17. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 149
18. ^ a b 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
19. ^ 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. ayunar
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ayunar