bajar

Forms

bajar (first-person singular present bajo, first-person singular preterite bajé, past participle bajado)^[1] Old and dialectal forms include baxar, baixar, bayxar, bayssar, vaxar, vajar, besar and baisar, and Leonese basiar.^[2] Old Spanish wrote baxar with ⟨x⟩, still the Academy's spelling in 1726.^(DEMel|s.v. bajar(se))^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish baxar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *bassiare (“to lower”).^[4][5][1] The Vulgar Latin verb is formed from Late Latin bassus (“stout and short; low”), or, in the DLE's wording, from a Vulgar Latin bassius.^[5][4][6] This adjective is found only in glosses and as a personal name, and is thought to be Oscan.^[7] Wiktionary also mentions Ancient Greek βάσις (básis) or βαθύς (bathús, “deep”) and a Celtic language as possible sources.^[1]

García de Diego prefers *bassare, through a form *bacsare with ⟨cs⟩ for ⟨ss⟩ as in vejiga, and argues against Meyer-Lübke's *bassiare.^[8] The same verb is Portuguese baixar, Galician baixar, Catalan baixar and French baisser.^[8][9][10] The DHLF notes that the Vulgar Latin verb stood in opposition to *altiare, the source of hausser (“to raise”).^[11]

The verb in turn shaped the adjective bajo: the Latin adjective first gave *basso, which became baxo under the influence of the verb before the first texts, as in baixo and baix, while the other Romance languages have bas and Italian basso.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TDHLE's first record is a privilege of Alfonso VII of 1143, which grants the men of Soria the road per ond averon besado “by which they had come down” towards Valencia.^[2] The BDELC dates the verb to the 12th century, and the prefixed abajar is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140).^[4] In the Libro de Apolonio (c. 1240, in a 14th-century copy) it already means “to lower” in a figurative sense: a poor girl would not su dignidat baxar “lower her dignity”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The TDHLE arranges the senses under five heads: moving towards a lower place, humbling or bringing down, reducing, ending or withdrawing, and some others.^[2] Alfonso X's prose already has “go down”, “diminish”, “put lower” and “lower the level”.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 recorded baxar la cabeça “to obey”, baxar el tono “to speak less loudly” and baxar de precio “to get cheaper”.^[14] In 1726 the Academy noted that the verb is formed from baxo and that the old form was abaxar.^[3]

In the River Plate region and elsewhere bajar means to go from the countryside to the city, a sense recorded from 1866; a 1953 text notes that going to Madrid was called bajar.^[2] Modern senses include lowering prices or the volume and, in computing, downloading a file.^[5][1] In Mexico, Ecuador and Peru it also means to let air out of a tyre, and figuratively to tone down a statement.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the prefixed abajar appears in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[4]
• 1143 – a privilege of Alfonso VII for Soria has the form besado “come down”.^[2]
• c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio (in a 14th-century copy) uses baxar figuratively.^[12]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas uses it for falling from power.^[13]
• 1499 – the Celestina uses it for going down to open a door.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records baxar la cabeça, baxar el tono and baxar de precio.^[14]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines baxar as going down from a higher place.^[3]
• 1866 – first record of the River Plate sense “go down to the city”, in Estanislao del Campo's Fausto.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To go or move down, to descend: El agua baja por la ladera.^[5][1]
2. (intransitive, also reflexive) To go to a lower place: Bájate al portal a esperarme.^[5]
3. (intransitive) To travel south, or towards the end of something.^[5]
4. (intransitive, also reflexive) To get down from an animal or thing, or to get off or out of a vehicle: Se bajó del autobús en la plaza.^[5][1]
5. (intransitive) To decrease, to fall in level, price or value: Ha bajado la fiebre.^[5]
6. (intransitive) To lose power, standing or fortune.^[5]
7. (intransitive, music) Of a voice or instrument, to move to a lower pitch.^[5]
8. (transitive) To go down a slope or staircase from top to bottom.^[5]
9. (transitive) To take or bring something or someone down, or to lower something: Baja la caja del armario.^[5][1]
10. (transitive) To reduce the level of something, such as the volume or the price.^[5][1]
11. (transitive, computing) To download.^[1]
12. (Mexico, Ecuador, Peru) To let air out of a tyre to the right pressure.^[15]

Word family

• baja
• bajada
• abajar
• bajante
• rebajar
• bajamar

Related words

• bajo
• abajo
• Portuguese baixar
• French baisser

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 e f g 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. bajar
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 577
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bajar
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. bajar
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. bajar
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 461
8. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 946
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 448
10. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 1, 555
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. baisser
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. bajar
13. ^ 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. bajar
14. ^ 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. 291
15. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. bajar