conocer

Forms

conocer (first-person singular present conozco, first-person singular preterite conocí, past participle conocido)^[1] Old Spanish wrote conoscer, connoscer, connosçer and conoçer beside conocer.^[2][3] Forms with a palatal nasal also occur: coñosce in the Cid, conyoscer in the Libro de Apolonio and the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca, coynnoscer in the Aragonese Vidal Mayor, and coñecer in Torres Naharro.^[3][4] Old Spanish had a preterite conuvo “he knew”, recorded as early as 1055.^[3] Old Aragonese had conoxer; the Judeo-Spanish of Morocco has coneser.^[5][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin conōscō (“to get to know”), the form that Latin cognōscō took under the influence of the simple verb nōscō.^[3][6][1] The form without ⟨g⟩ is already found in texts of the imperial period, and it is the one that prevailed in almost all the Romance languages.^[3] Wiktionary adds that it replaced an inherited Old Spanish coñocer, whose /ɲ/ kept a trace of the Latin ⟨gn⟩.^[1][3] Corominas finds the same trace only in Portuguese conhecer, in the Engadine cugnuoscher and in a few Alpine dialects of Italy.^[3]

The same Latin verb is Asturian conocer, Galician coñecer, Catalan conèixer, Occitan conóisser, French connaître, Italian conoscere and Romanian cunoaște.^[7][5][1] The ending ⟨-ecer⟩ of the Portuguese and Catalan verbs, of 16th-century coñecer and of Moroccan Judeo-Spanish coneser was taken from the many verbs in -ēscō, which were more frequent.^[3]

The classical verb is formed from con- and gnōscō, the older form of the simple verb “to get to know”.^[1][8] De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *gnōske- and to a present Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₃-sḱé- of the root *ǵneh₃- (“to know”), the source also of the Hittite and Sanskrit verbs for “to know, recognise”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH's first record is the preterite conuvo in a charter of 1055 from Oelschläger's list; the infinitive and present appear in the Cid.^[3][6] In the Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the verb means “to recognise”: „essora lo coñosce mio Cid el de Bivar” “then my Cid of Bivar recognises him”.^[4] The Cid also uses it of knowing a thing well: „bien las connosçe”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the verb already covered “to understand the nature of things”, “to have dealings with a person”, “to acknowledge, confess” and “to know carnally”: the prose of Alfonso X has all four.^[10] Berceo and the Libro de Alexandre use it for “to confess”, the Rimado de Palacio for “to forgive” and “to be grateful for”, and Rojas Zorrilla in the 17th century for “to acknowledge someone as”.^[3] Covarrubias in 1611 gives the senses “to confess one's sin”, “to know a woman carnally” and, in law, “to hear a case as judge”.^[11]

The Academy kept the senses “to confess” and “to thank” as obsolete, and still records the legal conocer de “to have jurisdiction over”.^[12][13] Its 1843 edition added the reflexive “to judge oneself fairly” and the proverb antes que conozcas, ni alabes ni cohondas “don't praise or blame before you know”.^[13] Bénaben notes that Spanish uses conocer where French says reconnaître “to recognise”, as in le conocí por la voz.^[14] In the preterite it now commonly means “to meet for the first time”.^[1]

Timeline

• 1055 – the preterite conuvo in a charter.^[3][6]
• c. 1140 – the Cid has coñosce and connosçe.^[4][9]
• 1202 – conoscida cosa “a known thing” in the Cortes de Benavente, the first record not known from a later copy.^[4]
• c. 1250 – the noun conoscimiento in the Setenario.^[3][6]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses connosçer for understanding the nature of things and for carnal knowledge.^[10]
• c. 1280 – the derivative reconnoscer in the Primera crónica general.^[3][6]
• 1525 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias lists the senses “to confess”, “to know carnally” and “to judge a case”.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as perceiving an object as distinct from everything else and notes the irregular conozco.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. cognoscere”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To find out, by the use of the mind, the nature, qualities and relations of things; to know.^[12]
2. To understand, notice or realise something: Por su cara conocí que mentía.^[12]
3. To recognise; to tell a person or thing apart from everything else: Te conocí por la manera de andar.^[12][14]
4. To know, be acquainted with a person or a place; to have dealings with someone (also reciprocal: nos conocemos).^[12][1]
5. (in the preterite) To meet for the first time: La conocí en un viaje a Lima.^[1]
6. To experience: Aquel equipo nunca conoció la victoria.^[12]
7. To have sexual relations with.^[12][1]
8. (obsolete) To confess one's crimes or sins; to show gratitude.^[12]
9. (law) conocer de: to hear a case with lawful authority.^[12][11]
10. (reflexive) To know oneself; to judge oneself fairly.^[12][1]

Word family

• conocido
• conocedor
• conocimiento
• desconocer
• desconocido
• desconocimiento
• reconocer
• reconocimiento

Related words

• conocible
• preconocer
• cognoscible
• cognición
• incógnito
• noticia
• noción
• noble
• Latin cognōscō
• Portuguese conhecer

Usage notes

Conocer is irregular in the first person present and in the present subjunctive (conozco, conozca), like other verbs in -ecer;^[16][1] Autoridades already notes this.^[16][1] The colloquial phrase se conoce que means “apparently, it seems that”.^[12] Conocer is used for knowing people, places and things by acquaintance, beside saber for knowing facts.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. conocer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 176
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. conocer
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1716
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. conocer
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. cognōscere
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. nōscō
9. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 129
10. ^ a b 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. conocer
11. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 502
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. conocer
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 186
14. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. conocer
15. ^ 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. conocer
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 519
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 278