conservar

Forms

conservar (first-person singular present conservo, first-person singular preterite conservé, past participle conservado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnservō (“to keep safe, preserve”), first recorded in the first half of the 13th century.^[2][3][1][4] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing, and Nascentes says the same of the Portuguese word.^[1][5]

The verb itself is formed from Latin con- + servō (“to watch over, keep, save”).^[6][7] Gómez de Silva traces the simple verb to Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to protect”), and the OLD compares Umbrian and Avestan verbs.^[7][6]

The same Latin word was taken as Portuguese conservar, Catalan conservar, French conserver and Italian conservare.^[8][9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in Berceo's Loores de Nuestra Señora (c. 1236–1246, known from an 18th-century copy), where the Virgin is asked to protect the peaceful: conserva los pacíficos, reforma los irados “preserve the peaceful, reform the angry”.^[10][11][12] The first record in a manuscript of its own time is the Castigos of 1293.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Alonso dates the general use of the verb to the 15th century, with the sense “keep in a certain state”.^[13] Nebrija's dictionary of about 1495 gives it with the Latin conservo, and the noun conserva “preserved food” is recorded in the same year.^[4][2]

Autoridades in 1729 distinguished three senses: to maintain and keep something in being, to keep something in custody, and to candy fruit, making conserva of it.^[14] Cuervo documented the construction from the 16th century on, with material and moral objects (keeping a fountain, keeping what has been won).^[15] The DLE lists the sense “keep someone alive and unharmed” and, beside making preserves, “preserve a food in a suitable medium”.^[3][16]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo.^[2][12]
• 1293 – the Castigos use conseruar in a manuscript of the time.^[10]
• 1438 – first record of conservación.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin conservo;^[4] conserva is first recorded.^[4][2]
• 1505 – first record of conservador.^[2]
• 1572 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[17]
• 1729 – Autoridades adds the sense “candy fruit”.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from conservare, cum and servare.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. To keep, maintain: to take care that something lasts or stays whole; also pronominal: El museo conserva el retablo en buen estado.^[3][1]
2. To keep someone alive and unharmed.^[3]
3. To keep up a habit or custom.^[3][19]
4. To keep something carefully, to retain: Todavía conservo las cartas de mi abuela.^[3][1]
5. To preserve food in a suitable medium, to make preserves of it.^[3][19]
6. (pronominal) To survive, to still exist.^[19]

Word family

• conserva
• conservación
• conservador
• conservable
• conservante

Related words

• conservativo
• conservatorio
• Latin servō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. conservar
3. ^ 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. conservar
4. ^ a b c d 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. conservar
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. conservar
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. conservar
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 949
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. conservar
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. conservar
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. conservar
12. ^ 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
13. ^ 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. 764
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2
15. ^ 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, 412
16. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. conservar
17. ^ 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. conservar
18. ^ 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
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. conservar