coger

Forms

coger (first-person singular present cojo, first-person singular preterite cogí, past participle cogido)^[1] Medieval texts write the present subjunctive coia, coian.^(DEMel|s.v. coger(se))^[2] The spelling cojer is an old variant.^[1] Galician, Leonese and Asturian have coller, coyer and coer.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin colligō (“to gather together, collect”).^[4][5][1][3] The Latin verb is formed from con- (“together”) and legō (“to gather, pick; to read”).^[4][6][7]

The same word is Portuguese colher, Galician coller, Asturian coyer, Catalan collir, Aragonese cullir, French cueillir and Italian cogliere.^[3][1] The learned borrowing of the same Latin verb is colegir, and English cull belongs to the same family.^[1] Wiktionary notes that it is not related to Latin cōgō (“to assemble”).^[1] Autoridades had derived it from that verb.^[1][8]

Covarrubias explained the loss of the /l/ by the harsh sound that a form ⟨colger⟩ would have had.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1074.^[4] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) those who have received the king's letter dare not abrir nin coger the Cid, that is, open their doors to him and take him in.^[10][11] The Cid also uses it for gathering grain and folding a tent.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish coger meant “to gather, harvest”, “to collect a tax”, “to take in, shelter” and, in the reflexive, “to go away”.^[11] Alfonso X's prose has it for seizing a hawk on the fist, for a shell taking in moisture and for a bridge whose arch spans a whole river.^[2] Covarrubias defines it as gathering together what is scattered and lists coger los frutos, coger al ladrón “to catch the thief” and coger agua en cesto “to carry water in a basket”, that is, to work in vain.^[9] The Academy's 1884 dictionary puts first the sense “to seize, take with the hand”.^[12]

The modern verb also covers catching an illness, understanding a joke and, in Spain, taking a bus or a road.^[5][1] In much of Latin America it is a vulgar word for having sex: the DLE and DAMER record it in Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia.^[5][13] The first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico in 1519, is about men who coxen oro “gather gold” with their slaves.^[14]

Timeline

• 1074 – Corominas's first record.^[4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for taking someone in, gathering and folding.^[10][11]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes punishes him who espigas en mies agena cogiere “gleans ears in another's field”.^[10]
• 1250–1300 – the prose of Alfonso X uses it for taking hawks on the fist.^[2]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin lego, colligo and cogo.^[15]
• 1519 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin colligo.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin colligere.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grasp, seize or take hold of something or someone: Cógelo de la mano.^[5][1]
2. To receive or take in: El suelo ha cogido mucha humedad.^[5]
3. To gather or harvest: fruit, flowers, a crop.^[5][1]
4. To have room for, hold a certain quantity.^[5][2]
5. To find or catch someone in a state; to catch out a lie or a secret.^[5]
6. To catch, overtake or arrest someone; of a bull, to gore; of a vehicle, to run over.^[5][1]
7. To pick up a radio or television broadcast.^[5]
8. To catch an illness or a mood: coger un resfriado.^[5]
9. To understand: No he cogido la broma.^[5][1]
10. (chiefly Spain) To take a means of transport, or to take a road or direction.^[5][1]
11. (vulgar, Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Río de la Plata, Paraguay, Bolivia) To have sex.^[5][13][1]

Word family

• cogida
• acoger
• encoger
• escoger
• recoger
• sobrecoger
• cogedor

Related words

• colecta
• colectar
• colegio
• colegir
• cosecha
• Latin colligō
• Portuguese colher
• French cueillir

Usage notes

The DLE labels the sexual sense vulgar, and DAMER marks it as taboo in Bolivia.^[5][13] The set phrase aquí te cojo, aquí te mato means taking a chance the moment it comes.^[5]

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 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. coger
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1728
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. coger
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. coger
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. coger
8. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. coger
9. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 478
10. ^ 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. coger
11. ^ 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. 120
12. ^ 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. 254
13. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. coger
14. ^ a b 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. coger
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 314