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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word comprar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1095 More words from the 11th century
Inherited from
Latin *compero via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Latin parō

Pronunciation

  • /komˈpɾaɾ/, [kõmˈpɾaɾ][1]

Forms

comprar (first-person singular present compro, first-person singular preterite compré, past participle comprado)[1] In 11th-century texts a Latinising form comparar with Castilian endings is found from 1064.[2] Old Spanish texts often spell it conprar.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish comprar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *comperāre, from Latin comparō (“to prepare, provide; to acquire”).[2][5][1] The Latin verb is formed from com- and parō (“to prepare, provide, acquire”).[2][6][7] It is the inherited counterpart of the learned comparar “to compare”.[8][9]

In the sense “to buy”, the Latin verb is found in vulgar writers of the imperial period and in inscriptions from the end of the 4th century, and it replaced emō (“to buy”) in all the Romance languages.[2][10] Almost all the Romance forms, the Castilian among them, presuppose the Vulgar Latin form, the one regular Latin vowel weakening would give (compare comperator in a papyrus of about 570); classical Latin avoided it under the influence of the simple verb.[2] The REW finds that the western forms rest on this form, while the Old French third person compere requires comparat.[10]

The same verb is Portuguese comprar, Catalan comprar, Old Occitan comprar, Old French comperer, Italian comprare, Sardinian comporare and Romanian cumpăra.[10][11][1] In Catalan the Romance form appears in Medieval Latin charters from 1045.[12]

De Vaan lists the compound, “to prepare, buy, obtain”, among the derivatives of the simple verb, “to furnish, provide”.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb from 1095.[2][5] Among the early literary examples, the Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211) and the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) tell how Abraham bought the double cave from Ephron: „conpro Abraam la cueva doblada” “Abraham bought the double cave”.[14] Menéndez Pidal's vocabulary of the Cid records the forms conpra and conprada.[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used it for buying with money, as in the 13th-century Gospel of Matthew: he „vende quanto ha e compra aquel campo” “sells all he has and buys that field”.[15] Alfonso X's histories also use it for “to pay for (a wrong), to atone”: „a pocos de dias lo compro muy cara mientre” “a few days later he paid dearly for it”.[16] Medieval Catalan had the same figurative sense “to pay dearly, expiate”.[12] The Academy marked the sense “to pay” as obsolete from 1843.[17]

Covarrubias (1611) explained the verb from Latin comparare “to compare”, because the buyer compares what a thing is worth with the price he gives, and recorded the proverb Quien no te conoce te compre “let him buy you who does not know you”, after a Latin one.[18] Autoridades (1729) gives the same proverb.[19] The figurative sense “to bribe” is in Domínguez (1846) and Gaspar y Roig, and is now the DLE's second sense.[20][21][22]

In Argentina the pronominal comprarse is colloquial for “to bump into something”, and in Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay comprar a alguien is “to win someone over”.[22][23]

Timeline

  • 1064 – a Latinising comparar with Castilian endings.[2]
  • 1095 – first record of comprar.[2][5]
  • c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum tells how Abraham bought the cave from Ephron.[14]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for buying stones.[16]
  • 1284 – the Estoria de España uses it for “to pay dearly for (a wrong)”.[16]
  • 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin emo and comparo.[24]
  • 1525 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.[25]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records Quien no te conoce te compre.[18]
  • 1846 – Domínguez gives the figurative sense “to bribe”.[20]
  • 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, Latin comparare “to acquire”.[26]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To buy, to get something for a price.[22][1]
  2. (transitive) To bribe someone, usually someone in authority: Intentaron comprar al juez.[22][27]
  3. (intransitive) To shop, especially habitually: Siempre compro en el mercado.[22]
  4. (reflexive, Argentina, colloquial) To bump or crash into something, with little or no harm.[22][23]
  5. (Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay) To win someone's affection and sympathy.[23]
  6. (obsolete) To pay.[28][27]

Word family

  • compra
  • comprador
  • compradizo
  • compraventa

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 163
  3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. comprar
  4. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 176
  5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. comprar
  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. 185
  8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1779
  9. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. comprar
  10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. comprare
  12. ^ a b 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, 856
  13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. comprar
  15. ^ 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. 738
  16. ^ a b c 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. comprar
  17. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 179
  18. ^ 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. 495
  19. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 458
  20. ^ 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. 425
  21. ^ 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, 610
  22. ^ a b c d e f 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. comprar
  23. ^ 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. comprar
  24. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 316
  25. ^ 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. comprar
  26. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 267
  27. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. comprar
  28. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. comprar

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Comprar.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/comprar. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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