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cobrar

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word cobrar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
c. 1140 Cantar de mio Cid More words from the 12th century
Ultimate origin
Latin capio
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Spanish recobrar
Spanish cobrar

Pronunciation

  • /koˈbɾaɾ/, [koˈβ̞ɾaɾ][1]

Forms

cobrar (first-person singular present cobro, first-person singular preterite cobré, past participle cobrado)[1] Old Spanish also had combrar, in an Oviedo document of 1273 and in the Primera Crónica General, beside recombrar for recobrar in the Cid and Berceo;[2] Corominas puts the nasal down mainly to the influence of escombrar “to clear away”.[3]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Spanish recobrar (“to recover, regain”): Old Spanish drew from that verb, at an early date, a seeming simple verb without the prefix.[3][4][5][2] Wiktionary instead puts this step in Vulgar Latin and derives the verb from *cuperāre (“to take, seize”).[1] That verb continues Latin recuperō (“to recover, regain”), formed from re- and the root of capiō (“to take, seize”).[3][4]

The verb without the prefix is shared with Portuguese cobrar, Catalan cobrar and Occitan cobrar, and Souletin Basque borrowed it early as Basque kuperatu.[3][6] The learned doublet of the longer verb is recuperar, first recorded in Oudin's dictionary of 1607.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) has the sense “to recover, get back”: the Cid promises his men lo que perdedes, doblado vos lo cobrar, “what you lose, I will win back for you twice over”.[7][3][8] Corominas also finds the word in documents of 1206.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the verb meant “to recover, get back” (Berceo has a saint's sight recovered: cobró toda su lumne), and also “to obtain, win” and “to get one's strength back”.[9][8] Alfonso X already used it for a creditor receiving what was owed, and for repairing a loss.[10] Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as receiving payment of a debt, and noted the hunter who cobra a lost falcon on finding it, and phrases such as cobrar fuerças and cobrar ánimo; he recorded the proverb el mal cobrador haze mal pagador.[11] Autoridades in 1729 put the sense of collecting a debt first.[12]

The Academy's 1884 dictionary added hauling in a rope or cable.[13] In much of Spanish America cobrar also means to press someone for payment, a use Cuervo and other purists rejected and which DAMER records in Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile.[14][15] In football the referee cobra a foul in Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.[14] Colloquially the verb means to get a beating.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has cobrar “to win back”.[7][3]
  • 1206 – documents in Oelschläger's list.[3]
  • c. 1230–1264 – Berceo writes cobró toda su lumne.[9][16]
  • 1272–1275 – the General estoria uses the verb for receiving what is owed.[10]
  • c. 1275 – the noun cobro appears.[3][4]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives cobrar lo perdido with Latin recipio and recupero.[3][17]
  • 1525 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, for collecting gold, cloth and maize.[18]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb el mal cobrador haze mal pagador.[11]
  • 1729 – Autoridades defines the verb as receiving payment.[12]
  • 1884 – the Academy adds the sense of hauling in a rope.[13]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive, also intransitive) To receive money in payment; to charge; to be paid: Los martes cobro en efectivo.[5][1]
  2. (transitive) To get payment for something; to collect.[5][1]
  3. (transitive) To recover, get back (recobrar).[5]
  4. (transitive) To come to feel an emotion or attitude: cobrar cariño, cobrar valor.[5][1]
  5. (transitive) To haul in a rope or cable.[5][13]
  6. (transitive) To acquire, gain: cobrar fama.[5]
  7. (transitive, derogatory) To take money for an illicit favour.[5]
  8. (colloquial, also intransitive) To get a beating.[5]
  9. (hunting) To retrieve game that has been shot.[5]
  10. (Latin America, sports) Of a referee: to call a foul.[5][14]
  11. (Latin America) To press someone for payment of a debt.[14]
  12. (reflexive) To recover, come round; to recoup oneself for a favour or a loss.[5]
  13. (reflexive) Of a disaster: to claim victims.[5][1]

Word family

  • cobranza
  • cobro
  • cobrador

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cobrar
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 825
  4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. recobrar
  5. ^ 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. cobrar
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7136
  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. cobrar
  8. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 119
  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. 708
  10. ^ 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. cobrar
  11. ^ 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. 472
  12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 386
  13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 251
  14. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cobrar
  15. ^ 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, 168
  16. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. cobrar
  17. ^ 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. cobrar
  18. ^ 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. cobrar
Cite this entry

“Cobrar.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/cobrar. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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