cazar

Forms

cazar (first-person singular present cazo, first-person singular preterite cacé, past participle cazado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote caçar, with ⟨ç⟩.^[1][2] García de Diego also lists an old Castilian capzar and a Mozarabic capchar.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *captiāre; the Old Spanish form was caçar.^[4][5][6][1] The Vulgar Latin verb is derived from captus, the past participle of capiō (“to take, seize”); the DLE connects it with captō (“to try to catch”).^[4][6][7] It is not found in Latin texts, but a derivative captiōsus (“intent on hunting”), used by the African writer Stephanus, points to its existence in the 6th century.^[4][8] It replaced Latin vēnor (“to hunt”).^[9]

The same Vulgar Latin verb is Portuguese caçar, Galician cazar, Catalan caçar, Occitan caçar, French chasser, Italian cacciare and Romanian acăța (“to seize, hang”).^[10][3][1] The English words chase and catch come from the Old French forms.^[1]

The Latin verb goes back to *kapjō, from a root *kap- (“to seize”); its cognates include *habjaną (“to lift”) and κάπτω (káptō, “to gulp down”).^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) is the first record: after a victory the Cid rejoices in what his men an caçado “have taken”.^[4][5][12] Coromines points out that there it still has the general sense “to capture” (booty), which he finds only in the Cid; from the 13th century on texts have the modern, narrower sense of hunting.^[8] The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250) speaks of coming back from hunting: quando de correr monte vengo o de caçar.^[13][12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose used it for hunting wild animals, and the Partidas already use caça figuratively for catching people with flattery and mockery.^[14] Nebrija distinguished caçar aves “to fowl” from caçar fieras or montear “to hunt game”.^[15] Autoridades recorded the senses “to come by something unexpectedly or by skill” and “to win someone's heart with tricks or flattery”, said mostly of loose women.^[16]

The Academy's 1884 dictionary added the nautical sense, hauling in the sheets of a sail, and the proverb si cazares, no te alabes; si no cazares, no te enfades.^[17] Colloquial senses such as “to understand quickly” and “to catch someone out” followed, and in sport the verb now means to foul an opponent or to catch up with the riders ahead.^[6][18] Italian took the nautical sense as Italian cazzare.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has an caçado.^[4][5]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has caçando.^[12]
• c. 1250 – the noun caza first recorded.^[4][5]
• 1256 – caçador “hunter” first recorded.^[4][5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives caçar aves and caçar fieras.^[15]
• 1532 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[19]
• early 17th century – cacería first recorded, in Lope de Vega.^[4][5]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary records the nautical sense.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To hunt: to pursue birds, wild beasts and other animals to catch or kill them.^[6][1]
2. (transitive, colloquial) To get something difficult or unexpected by skill: Cazó un buen trabajo.^[6][20]
3. (transitive, colloquial) To understand something quickly.^[6]
4. (transitive, colloquial) To win someone over with flattery or tricks.^[6]
5. (transitive, colloquial) To catch someone out in a slip, error or something they want to hide.^[6]
6. (sports) To foul an opponent violently without trying to play the ball.^[6]
7. (sports) To catch up with the riders or runners ahead.^[6]
8. (nautical) To haul a sheet taut, bringing the corner of the sail as close as possible to the side.^[6]

Word family

• caza
• cazador
• cacería
• cazabobos
• cazadero
• cazafortunas
• cazamariposas
• cazasubmarinos
• cazadora
• cazatorpedero
• cazatalentos

Related words

• cautivar
• cautivo
• captar
• cachar
• Latin captō
• French chasser
• English chase

Usage notes

Cazar largo means “to be very shrewd”.^[6] Román warned Chilean and other American speakers, who do not distinguish /θ/ from /s/, not to confuse cazar with casar “to marry”.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cazar
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. captiare
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 932
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cazar
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. cazar
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 163
8. ^ a b 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. 2, 374
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. cazar
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1662
11. ^ 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. capiō
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cazar
13. ^ 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. 659
14. ^ 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. cazar
15. ^ a b 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. cazar
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 246
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 228
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cazar
19. ^ 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. cazar
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cazar
21. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 290