conjurar

Forms

conjurar (first-person singular present conjuro, first-person singular preterite conjuré, past participle conjurado)^[1] Old Spanish texts write the verb coniurar, conyurar and, in the Siete Partidas, coyurar.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin coniūrō (“to swear together”), ^[4][5][6][1] Vox calls it a 13th-century loan from Latin, and Nascentes treats the Portuguese verb as a learned word too.^[7][8]

The same Latin verb gave Portuguese conjurar, Catalan conjurar, French conjurer and Italian congiurare.^{[9][10][11][1]}

The Latin verb is formed from con- (“with, together”) and iūrō (“to swear”), which comes from iūs (“law, right”).^[12][1] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Italic *jowos “oath, law” and to Proto-Indo-European *h₂oi-u (“vital force, eternity”).^[13] In Latin the verb meant “to take an oath together” and so “to conspire”; in Late Latin it took on the sense “to beseech by invoking a sacred power”, the source of “adjure” and “exorcise”.^[14][11][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb to the beginning of the 13th century, in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca and in Berceo.^[4][5] The CDH has it in the Egipcíaca (c. 1215, in a 14th-century copy), where a hermit begs the saint: Conjúrote por Dios el grant, que tú non vayas d'aquí adelant “I conjure you by great God not to go any further”.^[16][2] The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) uses it for putting witnesses on oath.^[16]

Semantic evolution

Cuervo divided the senses into two groups: an older one, ecclesiastical and legal, built on the Late Latin uses (to put on oath, to adjure, to exorcise), and the classical sense “to conspire”, which he did not find before the 15th century.^[17][18] The prose of Alfonso X already has all four uses: binding oneself by oath, putting someone on oath, exorcising demons and begging insistently.^[3] Berceo has the exorcist conjuring a demon in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos.^[16]

Nebrija gave it as the equivalent of Latin conspiro “in a bad sense”.^[19] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it first as conspiring or rising against a ruler, then as exorcising and as begging earnestly.^[20] The Academy marked “to swear together with others” as obsolete from 1817 on.^[21][22] The modern sense “to avert a danger” (conjurar el peligro) is listed by Alemany in 1917 as figurative, and Moliner and Vox now give it first among the transitive uses.^[23][24][7] In Andalusia conjurarse can also mean “to swear, assure”.^[25]

Timeline

• c. 1215 – first record, in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (known from a 14th-century copy).^[16][4]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes uses it for putting witnesses on oath.^[16]
• c. 1236 – Berceo uses it for exorcising a demon.^[16]
• 1256–1300 – the Siete Partidas explain the exorcist as one who has power to coyurar demons in the name of God.^[3]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it in the sense “to band together by oath”.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin conspiro as its equivalent.^[19]
• 1541 – first record from the Americas, in Puebla.^[26]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the senses “conspire”, “exorcise” and “beseech”.^[20]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin coniurare.^[22]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also pronominal) To conspire: Los oficiales se conjuraron contra el rey.^[6][1]
2. (intransitive, also pronominal) To join with others, usually by an oath, for some end.^[6]
3. (transitive) To exorcise: to say exorcisms over someone or something, said of one who has the power to do so.^[6][1]
4. (transitive) To call up or invoke spirits.^[6][1]
5. (transitive) To beseech earnestly, asking with some formula of authority.^[6]
6. (transitive) To avert or ward off a harm or danger: Las lluvias conjuraron la sequía.^[6][24]
7. (transitive, obsolete) To put someone on oath.^[6]

Word family

• conjura
• conjuración
• conjurado
• conjurador
• conjuro

Related words

• jurar
• perjurar
• Latin coniūrō
• French conjurer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. conjurar
3. ^ a b c d 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)
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 541
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jurar
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. conjurar
7. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. conjurar
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. conjurar
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll
11. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
15. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
16. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
17. ^ 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
18. ^ 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, 386
19. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 317
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 517
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 227
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. 277
23. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 435
24. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
25. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 164
26. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies