conducir

Forms

conducir (first-person singular present conduzco, first-person singular preterite conduje, past participle conducido)^[1] The preterite was spelt conduxe, conduxo until the 18th century;^[2] Autoridades notes the irregular x of the preterite and z of conduzco.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin condūcō (“to lead or bring together”), a learned word.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin verb is made of con- (“together”) and dūcō (“to lead”).^[1][6] The only popular descendant of the Latin verb in Spanish is the old noun conducho “provisions”, from the participle conductum.^[3] The simple verb also gave many learned verbs in ⟨-ducir⟩, such as deducir, producir, reducir, seducir and traducir.^[7][3]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese conduzir, Catalan conduir, French conduire and Italian condurre.^[8][1] Nascentes calls the Portuguese verb semi-learned, while the French one is inherited.^[9][10] English conduce is a cognate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first records are in Juan de Mena's Yliada and in Santillana, about 1440.^[3][4] The CDH has earlier hits in the Aragonese translations of Juan Fernández de Heredia (1379–1384): el demonio me conduxo a la opinion de Momio “the demon led me to Momius's opinion”.^[11] In 1499 Fernández de Santaella uses it in the Latin sense “to take on lease”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija's Latin dictionary (1492) still gives the three Latin senses: “to carry or bring”, “to hire” and “to be useful”.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1729) recorded “to transport”, “to guide or direct towards an aim” and the impersonal “to be convenient”.^[2] In the Americas it was used for raising and leading troops: in Quito in 1607 and in Lima in 1630 a captain is named para que vaya a conducir una compañía.^[14]

The pronominal conducirse “to behave” appears in Salvá in 1846 and in the Academy's dictionary in 1869.^[15][16] Baralt condemned it in 1855 as an unnecessary Gallicism, and Román answered that both it and the figurative sense “to impel” were accepted and used by good writers.^[17][18] The sense “to drive a motor vehicle” is the usual one in Spain, where Latin America says manejar.^[5] Under English influence it means “to run (an institution or programme)” in Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay, “to host (a radio or television programme)” in the Dominican Republic and “to conduct (an orchestra)” in Puerto Rico.^[19][20][21]

Timeline

• 1379–1384 – the Aragonese translation of Plutarch by Juan Fernández de Heredia.^[11]
• c. 1440 – Juan de Mena and Santillana, the first Castilian records.^[3][4]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin dictionary gives the Latin senses.^[13]
• 1499 – Fernández de Santaella uses it for “to take on lease”.^[12]
• 1604 – the derivative conducta appears.^[4]
• 1607 – the first record from the Americas, in Quito.^[14]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes its irregular forms and records the sense “to be convenient”.^[2]
• 1846 – Salvá records the pronominal “to behave”.^[15]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns the pronominal use as a Gallicism.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin conducere.^[22]

Meanings

Verb

1. To transport, to carry someone or something from one place to another: El autobús nos condujo al aeropuerto.^[5]
2. To guide or lead someone or something towards a place.^[5]
3. (also intransitive) To lead to an aim or a situation: Aquella decisión lo condujo al fracaso.^[5][23]
4. To manage or direct a business or the actions of a group.^[5]
5. (also intransitive) To drive a motor vehicle.^[5][1]
6. To carry a fluid or electricity, of a pipe or cable.^[23]
7. (obsolete) To hire, to agree on a price or wage.^[5]
8. (obsolete, intransitive) To be suitable for an end.^[5]
9. (pronominal) To behave, to conduct oneself well or badly.^[5]
10. (Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay) To run an institution, company or programme.^[19]

Word family

• conducente
• reconducir

Related words

• conducta
• conducto
• conductor
• conducción
• conducho
• aducir
• deducir
• producir
• Latin condūcō
• Portuguese conduzir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 492
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 61
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aducir
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. conducir
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. conducir
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2127
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. conduzir
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. conduire
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. conducir
12. ^ a b 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. 749
13. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. conducir
14. ^ 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. conducir
15. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 276
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 196
17. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 164
18. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 872
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. conducir
20. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. conducir
21. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. conducir
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 273
23. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. conducir