conseguir

Forms

conseguir (first-person singular present consigo, first-person singular preterite conseguí, past participle conseguido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish conseguir, inherited from Vulgar Latin *consequire, from Latin cōnsequor (“to follow; to overtake; to obtain”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The deponent verbs of Latin such as sequor (“to follow”) took active endings in the spoken language, and in the western Romance languages this family moved to the conjugation in -ire, as in seguir.^[2] The Latin verb is formed with the prefix con- from the simple verb.^[6][1]

The verb survives in all the western Romance languages,^[2] and Portuguese conseguir continues the form in -ire, while Catalan consegre continues one in -ere.^[5] Compare also Italian conseguire.^[7] Nascentes considers the Portuguese verb semi-learned.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb to the Cid, about 1140, where it meant “to follow” or “to seek”.^[2][3] One line has si non, do sopiéredes que somos, indos conseguir “if not, wherever you learn that we are, go after us”,^[9][10] and another con otros quel consigen de sus buenos vassallos “with others of his good vassals who go with him”.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the verb meant mainly “to follow, accompany”, “to pursue” and “to overtake”: in the Liber Regum a persecutor kills all the Christians he can catch, and in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar the Egyptians overtake the Israelites at the sea.^[2][9][11] Alonso dates the modern sense “to obtain, achieve what one wants” from the 15th century, when Alfonso de Palencia (1490) and Nebrija (c. 1495) use it to translate Latin adipisci and consequor.^[11][12] Autoridades defined only this sense,^[13] and Salvá in 1846 marked the older ones, “to follow” and “to catch up with”, as obsolete.^[14] Cuervo documented its use with an infinitive or a clause for what one manages to do.^[15][16]

In the Dominican Republic conseguir also means to win someone's love, and in Honduras it is a vulgar word for having sex.^[17] In the Americas the form consiguir appears in 16th-century documents.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid, in the senses “to seek” and “to accompany”.^[9][2][3]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum, in the sense “to catch, overtake”.^[9]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar: alcançaron los Egiptos e consiguieron.^[9]
• 13th century – the Libro de Alexandre uses it for “to pursue”.^[11]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia uses it for Latin adipisci “to obtain”.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: conseguir, Latin consequor, assequor; the derivative consiguiente is from the same year.^[12][3]
• 1585 – first record in the Americas, in Chile: no conseguir su propósito.^[18]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as “to attain, obtain what one seeks”.^[13]
• 1846 – Salvá marks the senses “to follow” and “to pursue” as obsolete.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin consequi.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To get, obtain or achieve what one seeks or wants: Al final consiguió una beca.^[4][16][1]
2. (transitive, with an infinitive or a clause) To manage to, succeed in: No consigo abrir esta caja.^[16][15][1]
3. (Dominican Republic) To win someone's love.^[17]
4. (Honduras, vulgar) To have sex with someone.^[17]

Word family

• consiguiente
• conseguimiento

Related words

• consecuencia
• consecuente
• seguir
• perseguir
• proseguir
• Latin cōnsequor

Usage notes

The stem vowel becomes i in some forms: consigo, consiguió.^[1] A proverb says el que la sigue la consigue, “whoever keeps after it gets it”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 191
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. seguir
4. ^ a b 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. conseguir
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1836
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 157
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. conseguir
9. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. conseguir
10. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 136
11. ^ a b c d e 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. 761
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 317
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 524
14. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 282
15. ^ a b 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, 406
16. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. conseguir
17. ^ 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. conseguir
18. ^ 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. conseguir
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 279