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cerca

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word cerca

cerca1 fence, enclosure

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1076
Ultimate origin
Latin circus
Etymology tree of cerca1
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek κρίκος (kríkos)
Latin circus
English circus
Latin circō
French chercher
Italian cercare
Spanish cercar
Spanish cerca
The journey of cerca1
From the same root · cerca1
Ancient Greek κίρκος (kírkos) ← κρίκος
Latin circiter ← circus
Latin circulus ← circus
Latin circum ← circus
Italian cerca ← cercare

Pronunciation

  • /ˈθeɾka/, [ˈθeɾ.ka], /ˈseɾka/[1]

Forms

cerca f (plural cercas)[1]

Etymology

The word for the fence or enclosure is from Spanish cercar (“to surround, fence in”).[2][1][3] cercar is from Late Latin circāre (“to go round, travel about”), from circus (“circle”).[4][5][6]

The noun looks like a postverbal derivative of the verb, but Old French cerche led Bloch to posit a Vulgar Latin *circa (“circle”), and Wiktionary gives both explanations, comparing Portuguese cerca and French cerce.[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the sense “siege” to 1076 and the sense “enclosure, fence” to 1241, in the Fuero Juzgo.[4][5] The Castilian Fuero Juzgo (c. 1260) speaks of a man who builds a cerca a derredor “a fence round about” his vineyard so that no one can pass.[7]

Semantic evolution

In the prose of Alfonso X cerca is both the wall of a town and a siege: a king cerco muchas uillas de buenas cercas “surrounded many towns with good walls”, and cities were made to obey the empire por muchas cercas “through many sieges”.[8] The sense “siege” is now obsolete.[2] Autoridades already called it old, quoting the chronicle of Alfonso XI and Santillana.[9][2] Covarrubias defines the word as the wall that surrounds a town and the wall of mud or stone round a vineyard, garden or yard.[10]

In military language cerca was also a formation of infantry facing the enemy on all sides with an empty centre.[2] In the Americas it is recorded in Tierra Firme in 1515 for fences of timber, and in Honduras it also names a hedge.[11][12]

Timeline

  • 1076 – Corominas's first record, in the sense “siege”.[4][5]
  • 1241 – the Fuero Juzgo uses it for an enclosure.[4][5]
  • 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España of Alfonso X has the word for town walls and for sieges.[8]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin murus for the wall of a town and uallum for the fence of a camp.[13]
  • 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme: tres cercas de maderos “three fences of timber”.[11]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the wall round a town or a vineyard.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A fence, wall or hedge set round a place, estate or house to protect it or mark it off.[2][1]
  2. (military, historical) An infantry formation facing the enemy on every side, with the centre left empty.[2]
  3. (obsolete) A siege of a town or fortress.[2][9]
  4. (Honduras) A living hedge.[12]

Word family

  • vuelacerca

cerca2 near

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
998 a charter in Oelschläger's list
Inherited from
Latin circa
Ultimate origin
Latin circus
Etymology tree of cerca2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin circā
Spanish cerca
English circa
Italian circa
From the same root · cerca2
Latin circumcircā ← circā
Latin quōcircā ← circā

Pronunciation

  • /ˈθeɾka/, [ˈθeɾ.ka], /ˈseɾka/[1]

Forms

cerca (superlative cerquísima)[1] Old Spanish also wrote cerqua and çerca.[14][15] Wiktionary records the variant cercas, with adverbial -s.[1]

Etymology

The adverb for “near” is inherited from Latin circa (“around, about”).[16][4][2][1] The same word is Portuguese cerca, Asturian cerca and Old Catalan cerca.[17][18][1]

According to de Vaan, Latin circum (“round about”) is the old accusative singular of circus (“circle”), and the form in -a is a more recent formation of the end of the first century BC;[19][1] Wiktionary also mentions an analysis as the same preposition with eā.[19][1] De Vaan considers the noun probably a loanword from Ancient Greek κρίκος (kríkos, “ring”), also κίρκος (kírkos), itself of uncertain origin.[19]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the preposition in a charter of 998 and the adverb in one of 1034.[4][16] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) it is used of time, “soon”: aun cerca o tarde el rey quererm'á por amigo “sooner or later the king will want me as a friend”.[20][14] The poem also uses it as a preposition without de: cerca Valencia la grand “near great Valencia”.[21]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used cerca as an adverb of place and time, as a preposition (cerca Valencia) and in the phrase cerca de “near; almost”.[14] Cuervo notes that the bare prepositional use had almost disappeared by the 16th and 17th centuries, leaving the adverb with de.[22] Covarrubias opposes it to lexos “far”, quoting the song Pues que los gallos cantan, cerca està el lugar.[10]

Painters used los cercas for the objects in the foreground of a picture, as Autoridades records from Sigüenza.[9][2] The diminutive cerquita and the derivatives cercano (13th century), cercanía (about 1460), acercar and acerca (both in the Cid) were formed from it.[16][4]

Timeline

  • 998 – the preposition in a charter.[4][16]
  • 1034 – the adverb in a charter.[4]
  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it of time and place.[20][14]
  • 1208 – the Cortes de León use cerca de “concerning, towards”.[20]
  • 1494 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.[11]
  • 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin ad, apud, iuxta, secus and prope.[23]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias quotes Garcilaso's Cerca del Tajo en soledad amena.[10]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. near, close by, a short distance away in space: La farmacia queda cerca.[2][1]
  2. Soon, close at hand in time: Ya están cerca las vacaciones.[2][24]
  3. (with de) Nearly, about, with a number or quantity: cerca de doscientos invitados.[1][24]
  4. (with de, diplomacy) Accredited to a foreign court or government, of an ambassador.[2]
  5. (painting, in the plural, as a masculine noun) The objects in the foreground of a picture.[2]

Word family

  • cercano
  • cercanía
  • acercar
  • acerca
  • cerquita

Usage notes

Cerca de is the prepositional phrase “near”: vive cerca de la estación.[2] The adverb takes the diminutive cerquita and the superlative cerquísima.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. cerca
  3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1651
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 42
  5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cerco
  6. ^ 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. cercar
  7. ^ 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. 675
  8. ^ a b 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. cerca
  9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 278
  10. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 585
  11. ^ a b c 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. cerca
  12. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cerca
  13. ^ 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. cerca1
  14. ^ a b c d Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 110
  15. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cerca
  16. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cerca
  17. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cerca
  18. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. cerca
  19. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  20. ^ 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. cerca
  21. ^ 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. 676
  22. ^ 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, 116
  23. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 324
  24. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cerca

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Cerca.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/cerca. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·