carecer

Forms

carecer (first-person singular present carezco, first-person singular preterite carecí, past participle carecido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *carēscere, formed on Latin careō (“to lack, be without”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas notes that the Vulgar Latin verb is found only in the Tironian notes and in a gloss of the pseudo-Cyril, in a 7th-century manuscript.^[2] parecer, from Vulgar Latin *parēscere, was formed in the same way.^[1]

Of the Romance languages only Spanish and Portuguese carecer keep it;^[2] the simple verb survives in Sicilian cáriri.^[2] García de Diego lists Catalan careixer, but Corominas says that no such Catalan word exists, apart from a few Valencians who have adapted the Castilian verb.^[5][2] Speakers of Spanish may now feel a link between the verb and caro “dear”, but the two Latin words were unrelated.^[2]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *kas-ē- (“to lack”), with Faliscan carefo (“I will lack”) and Oscan kasit (“is necessary”), and castus (“pure, chaste”) is its old past participle.^[6] De Vaan finds no certain Indo-European cognates, and rejects the connection with Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut”) because it explains neither the Latin /a/ nor the meaning.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest record in a contemporary manuscript is Alfonso X's Libro de las Cruces (1259), in a forecast of a bad year: careçeran los panes & sera karistia & fambre “bread will be lacking, and there will be dearth and hunger”.^[7] A Leonese text of 1271 has the participle caresciente “lacking”.^[8] Corominas gives as first record the Glosario del Escorial, of about 1400, which glosses Latin vaco with carecer among other verbs.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed the same: to be without something.^[2][4] Autoridades defined it as lacking something that one needs, wants or once had, and noted that it is always built with de and takes ⟨z⟩ in the present, carezco.^[10] Domínguez objected in 1846 that one may lack a thing without needing it.^[11] Covarrubias quoted the saying la necesidad carece de ley “necessity has no law” as a commonplace.^[12] Cuervo collected its use with de in Cervantes and Saint Teresa.^[13]

The learned carencia “lack”, of the 15th century, and carente “lacking”, of 1924, come from the Latin present participle, not from the Spanish verb.^[3][2] In Leonese it has also meant to fall ill or suffer a pain.^[14]

Timeline

• 1259 – Alfonso X's Libro de las Cruces has careçeran “will be lacking”.^[7]
• 1271 – the participle caresciente in a Leonese text.^[8]
• c. 1400 – the Glosario del Escorial, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1438 – Martínez de Toledo uses it in the Corbacho.^[9]
• 1457 – careciente in Arévalo's Vergel.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it “not to have what one wants”, Latin careo.^[15]
• 1544 – first record in the Americas, in Lima.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias quotes la necesidad carece de ley.^[12]
• 1729 – Autoridades notes that it is always used with de.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin carere.^[17]
• 1924 – first record of carente.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, with de) To lack, be without, not have something: El pueblo carece de agua corriente.^[4][1][18]

Related words

• carente
• parecer
• Latin careō
• Portuguese carecer

Usage notes

Carecer is always followed by de and conjugates like agradecer: carezco, carezca.^[18][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 866
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. carecer
4. ^ a b c 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. carecer
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1462
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
8. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. carecer
9. ^ a b 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. 627
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 171
11. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 341
12. ^ 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. 441
13. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 2, 67
14. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. carecer
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 311
16. ^ 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. carecer
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 212
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. carecer