cegar

Forms

cegar (first-person singular present ciego, first-person singular preterite cegué, past participle cegado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish cegar, inherited from Latin caecō (“to blind”), from caecus (“blind”), which gave ciego.^[2][3][4][1] The same Latin verb gave Portuguese cegar, Galician cegar, Asturian cegar and Catalan cegar.^[5][1]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *kaiko- and Proto-Indo-European *keh₂i-ko- (“one-eyed”); its cognates include Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍃 (haihs, “one-eyed”).^[6][1] The learned obcecar comes from the compound occaecō.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is the Liber regum (1194–1211, in a copy of the early 13th century), in a passage where some men are beheaded and another loses his sight: & a el sacco los huellos e cego lo “and him he deprived of his eyes and blinded”.^[7] DEMel's first records are in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (1200–1250).^[8] Corominas dates the verb to Berceo and the years 1220–1250.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

By the time of Alfonso X the verb had its four main senses: going blind, blinding someone, clouding the mind (los iudios cegados “the blinded Jews”, 1280) and filling up an opening, as when the springs of a land were stopped up.^[9] Covarrubias gave many examples of blinding as a punishment used instead of death.^[10] Autoridades listed the intransitive “to lose one's sight” first, and illustrated the figurative sense with the love, envy or self-interest that blinds a man.^[11]

Terreros recorded a military use, filling a ditch with earth and fascines so that it can be crossed, and Gaspar y Roig a nautical one, of a harbour silted up.^[12][13] The Academy included the blocking of conduits and paths in 1884, and today it also gives the dazzling of a sudden bright light.^[14][4] In the Americas enceguecer is used in the same sense.^[3]

Timeline

• 1194–1211 – the Liber regum has cego lo “blinded him”, in an early 13th-century copy.^[7]
• 1200–1250 – DEMel's first records, in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[8]
• 1220–1250 – Corominas's date, from Berceo.^[2][3]
• 1250–1300 – Alfonso X's Moamín uses it for going blind.^[9]
• 1280 – the General estoria uses the figurative sense and the sense “to stop up”.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija separates cegar a otro, Latin caeco, from cegar, ser ciego.^[15]
• 1538 – first record in the Americas, in Lima, of holes to be filled in.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as losing one's sight or taking it from another.^[10]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros records the military sense.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the sense of blocking paths.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To blind: to deprive someone of sight.^[4][1]
2. Of a sudden, intense light: to dazzle, to blind someone for a moment; also pronominal: El destello del flash la cegó un instante.^[4][17]
3. To cloud someone's judgement (ofuscar); also intransitive: Los celos lo cegaron.^[4][17]
4. To block up or wall up something that was hollow or open, such as a door, a well or a pipe; also pronominal.^[4][1]
5. To obstruct a conduit, path or other narrow passage with brushwood, stones or other obstacles.^[4]
6. Of sand, earth or silt: to make a canal, harbour or roadstead too shallow for ships.^[4]
7. (intransitive) To lose one's sight completely.^[4][1]

Word family

• cegador
• cegamiento

Related words

• ciego
• obcecar
• Latin caecō
• Portuguese cegar

Usage notes

Autoridades already noted the ie of the stressed forms: yo ciego, ciega tú.^[11] The verb is conjugated like acertar.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 66
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ciego
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. cegar
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. caecare
6. ^ 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, p. s.v. cegar
8. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cegar
9. ^ 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. cegar
10. ^ 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. 572
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 255
12. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 391
13. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 532
14. ^ 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. 230
15. ^ 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. cegar
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. cegar
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cegar