compadecer

Forms

compadecer (first-person singular present compadezco, first-person singular preterite compadecí, past participle compadecido)^[1] Fifteenth-century texts write compadesçer, conpadesçer and conpadescer.^[2][3]

Etymology

Corominas and the DLE derive it from Latin compatior (“to suffer with; to pity”) with the ending of padecer, which grew out of Old Spanish padir with a suffix.^[4][5][6] Wiktionary and Alonso start from an inchoative inherited from Vulgar Latin *compatiscere.^[1][3] García de Diego and Gómez de Silva instead see a Spanish formation from con and the verb for “suffer”, translating the Latin one.^[7][8]

The Latin verb survives in Portuguese compadecer and Italian compatire; Catalan compadir seems to be adapted from Spanish.^[4] It is Late Latin, used by Tertullian and Augustine, formed from com- and patior (“to suffer, undergo”).^[9][1] De Vaan finds no secure etymology for the simple verb.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record without a later copy is in Enrique de Villena's Tratado de consolación (1424): compadeçiendo vuestros enojos “feeling for your troubles”.^[2] The Libro del cavallero Cifar (1300–1305) has compadeciéndose mucho del cavallero Cifar, but in a copy of the late 15th century.^[2] Corominas dates the word to the middle of the 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the pronominal verb also meant “to be compatible, go together”, above all in the phrase dos contrarios no se pueden compadecer, found in the Crónica de Álvaro de Luna and in Teresa de Cartagena;^[2][3][11] Medieval Latin compati had the same sense.^[2][3][11] Nebrija recorded only the pronominal compadecerse, and Corominas finds the transitive construction no earlier than the 17th century.^[12][4]

The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the verb the opposite sense, “to move to pity”: someone's suffering compadece a friend.^[13] In 1846 Domínguez called the transitive te compadezco a new use spreading among educated speakers, in place of me compadezco de ti.^[14] Salvá recorded the old senses “to permit, tolerate” and “to conform, unite”.^[15]

Timeline

• 1300–1305 – compadeciéndose in the Cifar (in a late 15th-century copy).^[2]
• 1424 – Villena's Tratado de consolación.^[2]
• 1446–1447 – non se conpadescen “are not compatible” in Díaz de Toledo's translation of Plato's Phaedo.^[2]
• c. 1453 – the Crónica de Álvaro de Luna: dos contrarios non se pueden compadescer.^[3]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives compadecerse with Latin compatior.^[12]
• 1542 – the first record from the Americas, in Panama.^[16]
• 1846 – Domínguez notes the new transitive use.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from Latin compati.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, more often pronominal with de) To pity, to feel sorry for someone's misfortune or suffering: Nadie se compadeció del viejo cuando perdió la casa.^[6][18][1]
2. (pronominal) Of two things, or one with another: to match, be in keeping: Esas palabras no se compadecen con lo que hizo.^[6][18]
3. (pronominal, obsolete) To conform or unite.^[6]

Related words

• compasión
• padecer
• compasivo
• compatible
• Latin compatior

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. compadecer
3. ^ a b c d e 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. 731
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 334
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. padecer
6. ^ a b c d 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. compadecer
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. compadecer
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. compatior
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. compati
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 315
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. compadecer
14. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 420
15. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 268
16. ^ 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. compadecer
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 246
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos