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causar

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word causar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1148 a charter from Huesca More words from the 12th century
Ultimate origin
Latin causa

Pronunciation

  • /kauˈsaɾ/, [kau̯ˈsaɾ][1]

Forms

causar (first-person singular present causo, first-person singular preterite causé, past participle causado)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish causa + -ar.[1][2] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of the noun and dates it from a document of 1148 from Huesca, recorded in Oelschläger's list of first records.[3][2] The DLE and Moliner derive it directly from Latin causāre, and Wiktionary compares Medieval Latin causāre.[4][5][1]

Classical Latin had only the deponent causor (“to plead a cause; to give as a reason, allege”), formed from causa.[6][7] The DHLF notes that a passive participle in Tertullian presupposes an active form of the verb, which is recorded in Cassiodorus in the 6th century.[8] The learned verb has the same form in Catalan causar and Portuguese causar, and Italian has causare, which Nocentini dates from the early 14th century.[9][10][11] The popular outcome of the Latin verb survives in Old French choser (“to quarrel, blame”), while French causer was borrowed in 1174.[8][12]

The Latin noun, older caussa, meant “legal case, trial” and then “cause, purpose”.[13] Its origin is unclear: de Vaan reports a proposed connection with cūdō (“to strike”), and the OLD considers the noun probably cognate with that verb.[13][14] Wiktionary reconstructs *kaussā and leaves its further origin open.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the Huesca document of 1148, which DEMel reads as the participle causada.[3][15] The earliest hits of the CDH are the Latin noun causa in charters and fueros, not the verb.[16] Alonso quotes the sense “to bring about as a cause” from the Gran conquista de Ultramar (c. 1295): E esto les causó el oir “and hearing it caused this in them”.[17]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb meant to produce an effect or be the reason for something, with objects such as sorrow and grief, as in the Cancionero de Baena and the Corbacho (1438).[17] Nebrija rendered it as “to give cause”, Latin affero causam, and Covarrubias defined it in 1611 as being the occasion and cause of an effect.[18][19] Cervantes uses it in the Quijote with laughter, grief and pleasure as objects.[20]

Autoridades also recorded an older sense “to warn, admonish” from the Tostado, already out of use.[21] The Academy's dictionaries from 1817 to 1917 list an Aragonese sense “to bring a lawsuit”, and the 1884 edition added the extended sense “to be the occasion for something to happen” that the DLE keeps today.[22][23][24][4] On the island of La Palma causar is used without an object for “to impress, astonish”, recorded in newspapers of 1891 and 1905.[25][26]

Timeline

  • 1148 – first record, in a document from Huesca.[3][2]
  • c. 1295 – the Gran conquista de Ultramar uses the verb with an abstract subject.[17]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it as “to give cause”.[18][27]
  • 1560 – the first record from the Americas, in Yucatán.[28]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as being the occasion and cause of an effect.[19]
  • 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the obsolete sense “to warn, admonish”.[21]
  • 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records the Aragonese sense “to bring a lawsuit”.[22]
  • 1891 – the La Palma sense “to impress” appears in the press.[25]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) Of a cause: to produce its effect: La tormenta causó daños en el tejado.[4][5]
  2. (transitive, also pronominal) To be the cause, reason or motive of something; to bring about, provoke.[4][1]
  3. (transitive, also pronominal) To be or give the occasion for something to happen.[4]
  4. (transitive) To inflict.[1]
  5. (intransitive, Canary Islands, La Palma) To impress, catch the attention.[26][25]

Word family

  • causante
  • causador
  • causa
  • causación

Usage notes

The u of the stem is never stressed and forms a diphthong with the a in every form: causo, causas, causa.[5] In Aragon the verb was formerly used for “to bring a lawsuit”.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. causa
  3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 928
  4. ^ a b c d e 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. causar
  5. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. causar
  6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. causor
  7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. causor
  8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. causer
  9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. causar
  10. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. causar
  11. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. causare
  12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. causare
  13. ^ 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, p. s.v. causa
  14. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. causa
  15. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. causar
  16. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. causar
  17. ^ 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. 654
  18. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 313
  19. ^ 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. 462
  20. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 261
  21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 237
  22. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 190
  23. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 227
  24. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 356
  25. ^ a b c 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. causar
  26. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. causar
  27. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. causar
  28. ^ 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. causar
  29. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 163
Cite this entry

“Causar.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/causar. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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