consentir

Forms

consentir (first-person singular present consiento, first-person singular preterite consentí, past participle consentido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish consentir, inherited from Latin cōnsentiō (“to agree, to decide jointly”).^[2][3][1] The Latin verb is formed from con- (“together”) and sentiō (“to feel, to perceive”), and first meant “to feel together”.^[4][5] VOX calls the Spanish verb a popular word of the family of sentir.^[6]

The same verb is Portuguese consentir, Galician consentir, Catalan consentir, French consentir and Italian consentire.^[1][7] Nascentes takes the Portuguese verb as learned, and the DHLF calls the French one a very early borrowing from Latin, of about 980.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the verb in the Glosas Silenses of the second half of the 10th century.^[2][3] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) King Alfonso is present por querer el derecho e non consentir el tuerto “to uphold the right and not to tolerate wrong”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Berceo used it both for “to agree” and for “to tolerate”: si yo te lo consiento “if I allow you that”.^[12][10] Alfonso X's prose has “to permit, to accept”, “to come to terms with someone” and, once, “to have sexual relations with”.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 quoted the proverb hazientes y consintientes, pena por igual “doers and abettors, equal punishment”, and said that a boy whose parents let him have his way was called consentido.^[14] Autoridades defined it as agreeing with another's opinion, or permitting something knowingly.^[15]

Corominas notes that in popular speech, especially in Andalusia and the Americas, it came to mean “to indulge, to pamper someone”, already in Guzmán de Alfarache;^[16][17] consentido means “spoilt” in Andalusia and Cuba.^[2] The Academy added the senses “to admit, to bear” and, of furniture or a ship, “to give way, to crack” in 1869, and “to spoil children” in 1884.^[16][17] In the Canaries consentir also means “to make someone vain with praise”.^[18]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – first record, in the Glosas Silenses.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has non consentir el tuerto.^[10][19]
• 1227 – consentimiento is first recorded.^[2]
• 1256–1300 – Alfonso X's Siete Partidas use it for “to permit”.^[13][20]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin consentio for consentir con otro.^[21][2]
• 1527 – first records in the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records consentido “spoilt boy”.^[14]
• 1869 – the Academy adds “to give way, to crack”.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy adds “to spoil children”.^[17]
• 1932 – Millares records the Canarian sense “to make vain”.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. To allow or tolerate something, or to agree to its being done; also intransitive, with en: No pienso consentir que me hablen así.^[23][24][1]
2. To spoil or pamper children, or to be too lenient with those in one's charge.^[23][1]
3. To believe, to take as true.^[23]
4. (law) To grant; to bind oneself.^[23]
5. (law, Argentina) To accept a judicial or administrative decision without appealing against it.^[23]
6. (rare) Of a thing: to bear, to withstand: Esta mesa no consiente más libros.^[23][24][1]
7. (reflexive, rare) Of a thing: to come loose, to begin to crack or break.^[23]

Word family

• consentido
• consentidor
• consentimiento

Related words

• sentir
• consenso
• Latin cōnsentiō

Usage notes

Consentir is conjugated like hervir: consiento, consintió.^[24][1] Old Spanish also wrote consintir and conssentir.^[11]

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, 208
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sentir
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
6. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. consentir
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. consentir
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. consentir
11. ^ 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. 137
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra
13. ^ 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. consentir
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. 503
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 525
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 200
17. ^ a b c 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
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle
19. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière
20. ^ 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. 763
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 317
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
23. ^ a b c d e f g 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. consentir
24. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. consentir