continuar

Forms

continuar (first-person singular present continúo, first-person singular preterite continué, past participle continuado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin continuō (“to join together; to go on with”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] That verb is from Latin continuus (“adjacent, uninterrupted”),^[1][5] from contineō (“to hold together”), which is made of con- (“together”) and teneō (“to hold”).^[2][5] The adjective continuo is a learned word from the same Latin source, and its popular form contino was frequent in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[2]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese continuar, Catalan continuar, French continuer and Italian continuare.^[1][6][7][8] Nascentes calls the Portuguese verb a learned word, and the DHLF dates the French one to 1154–1173.^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Vidal Mayor, the Navarro-Aragonese law code of about 1250, says that a judge may continuar por al día seguient “continue to the following day” when the witnesses have said a great deal.^[10] In Castilian, Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas (1254–1260) says that este quinto libro continuasse con el quarto libro, that is, the fifth book follows on from the fourth, because both deal with births.^[10][11] Corominas dates it to the Partidas (about 1260) and says that it was already frequent in the 14th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as “to carry on with something begun”.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1729) added the intransitive “to last, remain” and the pronominal continuarse for a wall or mountain range that runs on without a break.^[13] Cervantes also used it for “to frequent (a house)”, a sense that Salvá in 1846 marked as old and little used.^[14][15] Cuervo's dictionary of construction records the spatial sense “to join one thing to another”.^[16]

In 1855 Baralt called it a Gallicism when used for “to keep, maintain” (se le continuó la pensión) and “to keep up a habit”.^[17] Today it is above all an intransitive verb, often with a gerund (continúa lloviendo) or with an adjective of state.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – the Navarro-Aragonese Vidal Mayor.^[10]
• 1251 – Calila e Dimna (in a later copy): non çeçé de continuar en aprender la gramática.^[10]
• 1254–1260 – the Judizios de las estrellas, the first Castilian record in a contemporary copy.^[10]
• c. 1260 – Corominas's date, from the Partidas.^[3][2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin continuo and perpetuo as its equivalents.^[19]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it.^[12]
• 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds “to last” and the pronominal use.^[13]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns some of its uses as Gallicisms.^[17]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin continuare.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To continue, to carry on with what was begun: Después de comer continuamos la reunión.^[4][1]
2. (intransitive) To last, to remain; to be still in a place or state, often with a gerund: Continúa nevando en la sierra.^[4][18]
3. (pronominal) To extend, to stretch on: La muralla se continúa hasta el río.^[4][18]

Word family

• discontinuar

Related words

• continuación
• continuador
• continuativo
• continuidad
• continuo
• contino
• contener
• Latin continuus
• Portuguese continuar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 182
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. continuo
4. ^ a b c d 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. continuar
5. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 192
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 965
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. continuar
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. continuer
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. continuar
10. ^ 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. continuar
11. ^ 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. continuar
12. ^ 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. 1, 507
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 556
14. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 314
15. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 288
16. ^ 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, 470
17. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 173
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. continuar
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 317
20. ^ 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. continuar
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 263