bastar

Forms

bastar (first-person singular present basto, first-person singular preterite basté, past participle bastado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *bastāre (“to carry; to suffice”); according to Corominas and the DLE this is from Ancient Greek βαστάζω (bastázō, “to lift, carry (a weight)”).^[2][3][1][4] Corominas explains the sense “to be enough” by way of the Greek senses “to bear, hold up”, which survive in medieval uses of the verb: “to resist” in Sem Tob, “to give out, stretch” in Santillana, and in Catalan “to bear a weight”.^[2] He suggests that a contracted variant like Modern Greek βαστᾶν (bastân) may already have existed in antiquity, and in his Catalan dictionary he places the contraction in the Greek of the late Empire.^[2][5]

The same verb is Portuguese bastar, Catalan bastar, Occitan bastar and Italian bastare.^[2][3] Corominas thinks it unlikely that the verb comes from the adjective basto, and that from bastir, as Meyer-Lübke allowed; the REW leaves the origin unknown, naming both proposals.^[2][6] García de Diego derives it from that verb, from a Germanic *bastjan (“to build, equip”).^[7] Corominas also dismisses an Arabic etymology proposed by Rice, since a word so old and so widespread in Romance and in Greek cannot be Arabic.^[2] The Greek verb has no known etymology;^[8][1] Beekes finds the comparison with βαίνω (baínō, “to go”) unconvincing.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to the end of the 12th century in his large dictionary and to the end of the 13th in the short one.^[2][4] The CDH's first hit without a later copy is the Fueros de Aragón of 1247: si … el precio non bastare a pagar el deudor “if the price is not enough to pay the debt”.^[9] The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in a copy of the early 15th century) has the participle in the sense “well supplied”: Egypt keeps the land of Ammon muy bastada.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Besides “to be enough”, Old Spanish used the verb for “to supply, provide”: the Academy's dictionary of 1770 quotes the Arcipreste de Talavera, ya no lo puedo bastar “I can no longer provide it”, and Palencia's translation of Josephus for the sense “to abound”, muy bastada de puercos monteses “well stocked with wild boar”.^[11] Both senses are obsolete today.^[3] A writer of Granada in 1601 thought the verb Castilian, while Andalusia preferred abondar.^[2]

Covarrubias explained the verb as a corruption of Latin bene stat “it is well”;^[12] Autoridades preferred the Greek origin.^[12] The reflexive bastarse a sí mismo “to be self-sufficient” was condemned by Baralt in 1855 as pure French, although he admitted it was very common.^[13] The imperative ¡basta! “enough!” is used to stop an action or a speech.^[3] The adjective bastante dates from about 1300, its use as an adverb only from about 1800.^[4][2]

Timeline

• late 12th century – the DCECH's first record.^[2] The BDELC has the late 13th century instead.^[4]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has the participle bastada.^[9]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón use bastare “should suffice”.^[9]
• c. 1300 – the adjective bastante.^[4]
• 1509 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[14]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “to suffice”.^[15]
• 1601 – a writer of Granada calls the verb Castilian.^[2]
• 1770 – the Academy records the obsolete senses “to abound” and “to supply”.^[11]
• c. 1800 – bastante comes into use as an adverb.^[4]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns bastarse a sí mismo as a Gallicism.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also pronominal) To be enough, to suffice: Con dos huevos basta para la tortilla;^[1][16] Ella sola se basta para llevar la tienda.^[3][1][16]
2. (intransitive) To have plenty of something; to abound.^[3][16]
3. (transitive, obsolete) To supply what is needed.^[3][11]

Word family

• bastante
• abastar
• bastantear

Related words

• basto
• bastir
• abastecer
• Italian bastare
• Portuguese bastar

Usage notes

The DLE lists separately an obsolete transitive bastar formed on basta (a tacking stitch), meaning the same as bastear “to tack, stitch a mattress”, still used in Venezuela.^[3] Moliner derives it from a Germanic verb meaning “to stitch”.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 537
3. ^ 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. bastar
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bastar
5. ^ 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, 716
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 949
8. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. bastar
10. ^ 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. 502
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 455
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. bastar
13. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 116
14. ^ 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. bastar
15. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 77
16. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bastar