comenzar

Forms

comenzar (first-person singular present comienzo, first-person singular preterite comencé, past participle comenzado)^[1] The oldest conjugation did not diphthongise the stressed e (començo, comença); comienza appears early, in Berceo.^[2] Old Spanish and Old Portuguese also had comezar;^[3] escomenzar was frequent until the 16th century and survives in rural speech.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish començar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *cominitiare.^[2][4][5][1] The Vulgar Latin verb is formed from com- and initiō (“to initiate”), which Christian authors already used for “to begin”.^[2][4][6] Meyer-Lübke took the Spanish verb for a Catalanism.^[7] Corominas rejects this.^[2] The 1884 and 1899 Academy dictionaries derived it from Italian cominciare.^[8][9]

The same Vulgar Latin verb is Portuguese começar, Galician comezar, Catalan començar, Occitan començar, French commencer and Italian cominciare.^[7][10][1] Corominas discusses the Galician-Portuguese forms without /n/, começar and começo, which are general in the Cantigas, where the noun rhymes with empeço.^[2]

initiō is formed from initium (“beginning”).^[11][1] The sense “to begin” is late; in classical Latin the verb meant admitting someone to religious mysteries.^[11][12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH dates the first record to the beginning of the 13th century, in Berceo and the Libre dels tres reys d'Orient.^[2] The CDH's earliest hit is the Liber Regum (1194–1211, in a copy of the first quarter of the 13th century), in which Titus takes Jerusalem in the second year after his father Vespasian comenzo a rregnar “began to reign”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

From the start comenzar competed with empezar, and the cross of the two gave Old Spanish compeçar, in the Cid.^[2] Alfonso X's prose uses it for beginning something, for a thing having its beginning, and for founding an order.^[15] It was very much a classical word.^[2] Mayans in 1737 thought it somewhat old-fashioned, though still admissible.^[2] Corominas finds it today in literary and elevated style, beside empezar, principiar and iniciar.^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1729) noted the irregular present comienzo.^[16]

Timeline

• 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum has comenzo a rregnar.^[14]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has començé.^[14]
• early 13th century – the first record for Corominas, in Berceo and the Libre dels tres reys d'Orient.^[2][4]
• 1220–1250 – the noun comienzo is first recorded, in Berceo.^[4][2]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[17]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes the present comienzo.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Italian cominciare.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To begin, start something: Comenzaron las obras en marzo.^[5][1]
2. (intransitive) Of a thing: to have its beginning at some point: El sendero comienza junto al puente.^[5]
3. (intransitive) Of an event: to start, get under way.^[5][1]

Word family

• comienzo
• recomenzar

Related words

• iniciar
• empezar
• Latin initiō
• Portuguese começar

Usage notes

The colloquial phrase comienza y no acaba is said of someone who drags out a speech and always has more to say.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 157
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1760
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. comenzar
5. ^ 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. comenzar
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. initiare
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2079
8. ^ 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. 262
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 244
10. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. comenzar
11. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. initiō
12. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. initio
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. commencer
14. ^ 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. comenzar
15. ^ 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. comenzar
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 431
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. comenzar