beber

Forms

beber (first-person singular present bebo, first-person singular preterite bebí, past participle bebido)^[1] In the Middle Ages the word was spelt bever, as in the Cid and in Nebrija;^[2][3] beuer, beve and bevemos are common Old Spanish forms.^[4][2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish bever, inherited from Latin bibō (“to drink”).^[4][5][6][1] Wiktionary puts the modern spelling with ⟨b⟩ for the medieval ⟨v⟩ down to the influence of the Latin spelling.^[1]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese beber, Galician beber, Asturian beber, Catalan beure, French boire, Italian bere and Romanian bea.^[7][8][1]

bibō goes back to *pibe/o- and to the reduplicated present *pi-ph₃-e/o- (“to drink”); the initial /p/ became /b/ by assimilation to the /b/ inside the word.^[9][1][10] It is cognate with Ancient Greek πίνω (pínō) and Sanskrit पिबति (píbati).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the verb in the Glosas Silenses, which also have the noun bebetura “drink”.^[4][5] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the Cid tells the captive count: „Comed, conde, d'este pan e beved d'este vino” “Eat, count, of this bread and drink of this wine”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish also used the infinitive as a noun, el beber “drink, a beverage”, from the 13th to the 16th century;^[12] Alfonso X writes of a drink made of boiled wheat.^[12][4][13] His prose already uses the verb for the habitual drinking of alcohol.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 recorded phrases such as beber los vientos “to long for something” and beber por calabaza “to marry without looking into the bride's family”.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) added beber a la salud de otro “to toast someone” and beber la doctrina “to take in someone's teaching”, the source of the modern sense “draw on a source”.^[15] In Yucatán and parts of southern Mexico beber has meant “to have breakfast”.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 900s – the Glosas Silenses record the verb.^[4][5]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has beved d'este vino.^[11]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo has pidió a beber.^[12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses beuer for drinking a remedy and as a noun.^[13]
• 1495 – the noun bebida is first recorded.^[5]
• 1611 – Covarrubias collects proverbs and phrases under bever.^[14]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades spells it beber.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin bibere.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, transitive) To drink, take in a liquid;^[1][19] (reflexive) to drink up: Se bebió dos vasos de leche.^[6][1][19]
2. (intransitive) To drink a toast: beber por los novios.^[6][19]
3. (intransitive) To drink alcohol, especially habitually or to excess.^[6][1]
4. (intransitive) To absorb, consume.^[6]
5. (intransitive, transitive) To draw ideas or information from a source; to be inspired by: Su pintura bebe de los impresionistas.^[6][1]
6. (intransitive) To cloud or upset one's judgement.^[6]

Noun

1. (masculine) el beber: drinking;^[20][1] (obsolete) a drink.^[20][1]

Word family

• bebedizo
• bebida
• embeber
• bebestible
• bebedero
• beberaje
• beberrón
• bebezón
• bebible
• bebido
• bebienda
• sobrebeber
• bebedor

Related words

• beodo
• brebaje
• Latin bibō
• Portuguese beber

Usage notes

The proverbs agua que no has de beber, déjala correr and sin comerlo ni beberlo are in common use.^[1] The phrase beber con blanco or beber en blanco is said of a horse with a white muzzle.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. beber
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. 75
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 552
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. beber
6. ^ 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. beber
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1026
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1074
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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. boire
11. ^ 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. beber
12. ^ a b c 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. 509
13. ^ a b c 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. beber
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. 307
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 584
16. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 198
17. ^ Ramos y Duarte, Félix (1895), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Imprenta de Eduardo Dublán, p. 85
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 144
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. beber
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. beber