comentar

Forms

comentar (first-person singular present comento, first-person singular preterite comenté, past participle comentado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin commentor (“to think over, study; to comment on”).^[2][3][4][1] The DLE gives the Latin verb in its rarer active form.^[4] The Latin verb is a frequentative of comminīscor (“to devise, invent”).^[2][5] The BDELC derives it from the root of mēns (“mind”), and Wiktionary traces the Latin verb to com- and the root Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).^[3][1] De Vaan derives the Latin noun from a Proto-Indo-European noun *mn-ti- (“thought, mind”).^[6]

The same Latin verb was borrowed as Portuguese comentar, Catalan comentar, French commenter and Italian commentare.^[7][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is Nebrija's dictionary of about 1495, which gives Latin commentor as its equivalent.^[2][3][9] The nouns came first: comento and comentador are from 1438 and comentario from about 1440.^[3] The earliest CDH hits for comentar, from 1257 on, are forms of comenzar “to begin”, as in comentaron a travar dél “they began to take hold of him”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as explaining, glossing or illustrating a work at length so that it is better understood, and the Academy kept this literary sense through the 19th century.^[11][12] Terreros added a sense now lost, to add something to the truth or twist it until it can no longer be seen, and Gaspar y Roig recorded “to invent falsehoods” as old.^[13][14] The Academy's dictionary of 1899 added the colloquial sense of making remarks about something, which is now the commonest use.^[15][4][16]

Timeline

• 1438 – comento and comentador.^[3]
• c. 1440 – comentario.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: comentar, Latin commentor.^[9][2]
• 1683 – first record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as glossing a work.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin commentari.^[18]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the colloquial sense “to make remarks”.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To explain or annotate the content of a text so that it is easier to understand: El profesor comentó un soneto de Garcilaso.^[4][1]
2. To make comments (comentarios) or remarks about something; to express opinions or impressions about it: Comentamos la noticia durante la cena.^[4][16][1]

Word family

• comentador

Related words

• comentario
• comento
• comentarista
• mente
• Latin commentor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 157
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. comentar
4. ^ a b c d e 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. comentar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 905
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. comentar
9. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (c. 1495), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca (facsimile, Madrid: Real Academia Española 1951), p. 55
10. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. comentar
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 430
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 175
13. ^ 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, 468
14. ^ 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, 604
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 244
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. comentar
17. ^ 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. comentar
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 262