bloquear

Forms

bloquear (first-person singular present bloqueo, first-person singular preterite bloqueé, past participle bloqueado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French bloquer, originally “to make into a block”, from bloc (“block”).^[2][3][4][1] Late in the 16th century the French verb took the sense “to blockade” under the influence of blocus (“siege fort; blockade”), from Middle Dutch blochuus, a compound of blok (“cut log”) and huus (“house”).^[2][3][5] Wiktionary traces the French noun to the same Middle Dutch word, and adds that English block may also have played a part in the Spanish word;^[1] Corominas says that the English and German verbs come from French.^[1][2] The Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a military word recently brought in from French.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun bloqueo is the CDH's earliest hit, in Cabrera de Córdoba's Historia de Felipe II (about 1619): the Prince of Béarn tightens the blockade of Paris.^[7] The verb follows in a letter of 1636 about a fortress que está bloqueada “which is under blockade”, and in Pellicer's newsletters from 1639.^[7] Corominas dates it 1725 and the BDELC 1693, with bloqueo at the end of the 17th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was military: Autoridades (1726) defines it as surrounding a fortress from a distance, holding the passes to starve it or keep out men and supplies until a formal siege.^[6] The Academy's 1884 dictionary added the naval blockade of ports and coasts.^[8] It gave bloque as the source of the verb.^[8] Moliner records the mining sense “to break off blocks of stone with explosives” and an old printing sense, and the freezing of credits or funds.^[9] The DLE now puts first the general senses “to obstruct, block the way”, “to stop something from working” and “to hold up a process”, and, also reflexive, “to paralyse someone's mind”.^[4] A computer program se bloquea when it freezes.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1619 – Cabrera de Córdoba has the noun bloqueo.^[7]
• 1636 – a letter has bloqueada, of a besieged fortress.^[7]
• a. 1640 – Alva Ixtlilxóchitl uses it in Mexico, of the city of Mexico.^[7]
• 1693 – the BDELC's first date.^[3]
• 1723 – a record from Venezuela.^[10]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a recent military loan from French.^[6]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the naval blockade.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also reflexive) To block, obstruct or close a way: Un camión volcado bloqueó la autopista.^[4][1]
2. (transitive, also reflexive) To stop something from working normally; to jam: La llave se bloqueó en la cerradura.^[4][1]
3. (transitive, also reflexive) To hinder or stall a process, such as negotiations.^[4]
4. (transitive, also reflexive) To paralyse someone's mind: En el examen me bloqueé.^[4]
5. (military, nautical) To blockade a fortress, port, territory or army, cutting off its communications.^[4][6]
6. (commerce) Of an authority: to freeze funds or a credit.^[4][9]
7. (reflexive, computing) Of a program: to freeze, lock up.^[1]

Word family

• bloqueo
• desbloquear

Related words

• bloque
• French bloquer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 602
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bloquear
4. ^ 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. bloquear
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 622
7. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. bloquear
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 155
9. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bloquear
10. ^ 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. bloquear