como

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin quomo, a contraction of Latin quōmodo (“in what way?; in the way that”).^[2][3][4][1] The contracted form is found from the 2nd or 3rd century AD, according to Pirson, and Wiktionary dates it securely from the mid-1st century; all the Romance forms come from it.^[2][5][1] The Latin word is the ablative of quis (“who, what”) with the ablative of modus (“manner”).^[6][5]

Old Spanish wrote como, commo and cuemo, also cumo and quemo.^[7] The variant ⟨cuemo⟩, already in the glosses of San Millán, was common until the end of the 14th century.^[2] It is usually explained as the Latin diphthong /uo/, which became /ue/ in early Castilian, but Corominas notes that Latin ⟨quo⟩ was everywhere reduced to /ko/ in Vulgar Latin.^[2] He prefers to see in ⟨cuemo⟩ an exaggerated reaction against the closed vowel of unstressed words, when a word that is normally unstressed was stressed: Cornu observed that the Cid uses ⟨como⟩ unstressed and ⟨cuemo⟩ in questions, exclamations and at the head of comparisons.^[2] Bénaben, following Menéndez Pidal, describes the chain ⟨quomo⟩ > cuomo > ⟨cuemo⟩ > ⟨como⟩, the unstressed use reducing /kw/ to /k/.^[6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese como, Catalan com and Romanian cum.^[8][5] Italian come and French comme continue the Latin word followed by et (“and”), Occitan coma has another ending, and French comment adds the adverbial ending -mente.^[8][1] Old Catalan often had co.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The glosses of San Millán, of about 950, have the form quemo;^[2][3] como itself appears in a charter of 1092.^[2][3] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) the Cid camps outside Burgos „commo si fuesse en montaña” “as if he were in the wilds”.^[9] The Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) has the interrogative: „¿Cúmo podremos prouar si es homne mortal […]?” “How shall we test whether he is a mortal man?”^[9] Manner, comparison and the question “how?” were thus there from the start.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish also used the word as an interjection, for a cause (“why?”), and for “in the capacity of”, as when the Cid serves the king cuemo buen vassallo “as a good vassal”.^[10][11] Several constructions of the classical language are now obsolete: como “as soon as”, como with the subjunctive for a gerund (como sea la vida del hombre milicia “life being a warfare”), and como “so that”.^[4][12] The use of como for que after verbs of saying, common in the old legal style (sepan quantos esta carta vieren como…), survives only after a few verbs, as in verás como….^[2][4]

Covarrubias (1611) mentions a theory that the old form quemo was Hebrew, but thinks it better derived from Latin quomodo.^[13] Baralt (1855) condemned as a Gallicism the use of como with the indicative for a gerund (como estábamos en misa).^[14] Cuervo's dictionary of construction devotes some 25 pages to the word.^[15][2]

In the Americas ¡cómo no! means “of course”, and como si tal cosa “as if nothing had happened”.^[16][17][18] Como ser “for example” is used in Argentina, Chile and Peru, and ¿cómo le va?, today mainly American, was medieval and classical in Spain.^[2] Moliner notes that in Spanish America the relative como after manera or modo is often stressed, and even written so.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 950 – quemo in the glosses of San Millán.^[2][3]
• 1092 – como in a charter.^[2]
• c. 1140 – commo and cuemo in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[9][2]
• c. 1180 – the interrogative cúmo in the Auto de los Reyes Magos.^[9]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for manner and comparison.^[11]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin ut, quemadmodum and ceu.^[20]
• 1520 – first record from the Americas, in Darién.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin quomodo.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin quomodo.^[22]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (relative) In which, after manera, modo, forma or así, tal, igual: No me gusta la forma como habla.^[4]
2. (relative) In the way that, without an antecedent: Lo preparé como me enseñó mi abuela.^[4][1]
3. With si or que, presents what follows as supposed or only apparent: Siguió hablando como si no me hubiera oído.^[4]
4. Shows that the speaker agrees with what is reported or with its source: Como dicen los médicos, hay que descansar.^[4]
5. about, approximately: Esperamos como media hora.^[4][1]
6. Softens what follows: Lo noté como nervioso.^[4]
7. For example: frutas tropicales, como el mango.^[4]
8. (obsolete) As soon as.^[4]

Conjunction

1. as: introduces the second term of a comparison of equality, often with tan or tanto: Es tan alto como su hermano.^[4][1]
2. With tanto, joins two terms: tanto los niños como los adultos.^[4]
3. With the subjunctive at the head of the sentence, introduces a condition, “if”: Como no me llames, me enfado.^[4][1]
4. With the indicative at the head of the sentence, gives a cause, “since”: Como llovía, nos quedamos en casa.^[4][1]
5. After some verbs, introduces a clause, formerly like que: Ya verás como todo sale bien.^[4][2]
6. (obsolete) So that, in order that.^[4]

Preposition

1. As, in the capacity of: Trabaja como traductora.^[4][23]

Related words

• cómo
• modo
• Latin quōmodo
• Catalan com
• Portuguese como

Usage notes

In questions and exclamations the word is stressed and written cómo; the DLE allows the accent also in no tenía cómo escribirlo.^[4][22] Spanish has two other, minor words spelled como.^[2][24] One is an obsolete noun “joke, trick”, used chiefly in dar como “to make fun of someone”, which Corominas, following Bonilla y San Martín, derives from Ancient Greek κῶμος (kômos, “revel, band of revellers”);^[2][4] Vélez de Guevara (1641) lists los comos among popular entertainments.^[2][4] The other is a regional como “rye straw” of La Rioja, from Latin culmus (“stalk”).^[24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 159
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. como
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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. como
5. ^ a b c d Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 846
6. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. como
7. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. como
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. quomodo
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. como
10. ^ 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. 126
11. ^ 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. como
12. ^ 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, 607
13. ^ 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. 493
14. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 147
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, 221
16. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 143
17. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 384
18. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 116
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. como
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 315
21. ^ 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. como
22. ^ 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. 264
23. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
24. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2021