concebir

Forms

concebir (first-person singular present concibo, first-person singular preterite concebí, past participle concebido)^[1] Old Spanish forms include conçebir, conçibio and the future concibra.^[2] The stem vowel alternates: concibo, concibió beside concebir, concebimos, which Autoridades already described as an irregularity.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin concipiō (“to take in, absorb; to conceive”); Old Spanish concebir has the same form.^[4][5][6][1] That verb was formed from Latin con- + capiō (“to take”).^[4][7][8] De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Indo-European *kh₂p-i- or to a non-Indo-European root of the same shape meaning “to seize”, and compares Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍆𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hafjan, “to lift”).^[9]

The same Latin verb gave Portuguese conceber, Galician conceber and Catalan concebre.^[10] In Spanish the Latin /p/ between vowels was voiced to /b/, and short /i/ became /e/.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) uses it of pregnancy: si la muger dixiere que concibio de algun omne “if the woman says that she conceived by some man”.^[11] Corominas gives Berceo as the first record, and the BDELC dates it 1220–50 with both senses, “become pregnant” and “form an idea”.^[4][5] Berceo's Loores has Que concebiste del Spiritu Santo “that you conceived of the Holy Spirit”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The Tentative Dictionary records both the conceiving of a child and the conceiving of an idea in Berceo.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 listed three senses: of a woman becoming pregnant, of forming a concept in the mind, and of suspecting or inferring one thing from another.^[14] Autoridades kept the same three.^[3] Feelings are concebidos too: a 1541 record from Michoacán says the Spaniards concibieron contra él ira “conceived anger against him”.^[15] The DLE now adds “to understand, find a reason for” (no concibo cómo…).^[6]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes uses concibio of a woman.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – the BDELC's date of first record;^[12] Berceo uses it of the Virgin.^[5][12]
• 1256–1300 – Alfonso X's legal prose uses it of the conception of Christ.^[16]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin concipio for concebir la hembra.^[17]
• 1517 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the senses “become pregnant”, “form a concept” and “infer”.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades notes the vowel change of yo concibo.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (also intransitive) Of a female: to conceive, to begin to carry young in the womb.^[6][1]
2. To begin to feel a passion or emotion: Concibió una gran simpatía por ella.^[6][18]
3. To form an idea or plan in the mind: Concibieron un proyecto ambicioso.^[6][1]
4. To imagine, form the idea of something.^[6][1]
5. To understand, find a reason for: No concibo por qué lo dijo.^[6][1]

Word family

• preconcebir
• concebible
• concebimiento

Related words

• concepción
• conceptivo
• concepto
• percibir
• recibir
• Portuguese conceber

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. concebir
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 469
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 165
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. concebir
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. concebir
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 186
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. concipiō
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1800
11. ^ 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. concebir
12. ^ a b c 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. 742
13. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 127
14. ^ 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. 1, 496
15. ^ a b 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. concebir
16. ^ 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. concebir
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 316
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. concebir