costar

Forms

costar (first-person singular present cuesto, first-person singular preterite costé, past participle costado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish costar, inherited from Latin constō (“to stand firm; to consist of; to cost”).^[2][3][4][1] A Latin document of 1099 already has the spelling ⟨custare⟩.^[2] The Latin verb meant “to exist, persist”, then “to depend on, consist of” and “to be bought at a price”.^[2][3] Its learned doublet is constar.^[1][2]

The same Latin word is Italian costare, French coûter, Occitan costar, Catalan costar, Portuguese custar and Romanian custa “to live”.^[5][6]

The Latin verb is formed from con- (“together”) and stō (“to stand”).^[7][1]

The present tense has ⟨ue⟩ (⟨cuesta⟩). Cuervo and Menéndez Pidal held that it was first ⟨*costa⟩, without the diphthong, and took the ⟨ue⟩ from the noun cuesta.^[2] Wiktionary also mentions that noun “slope” as a possible influence.^[2][1] Corominas thinks instead that the vowel was open from the start, as the Catalan, Occitan and Italian forms ⟨costa⟩ suggest, because the ⟨n⟩ of the prefix was lost before ⟨s⟩ and another consonant early enough not to lengthen the vowel; it is the nouns ⟨costa⟩ “cost”, costo and coste whose vowel is analogical.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140), where it means to cost effort or trouble: „E yo fincaré en Valencia, que mucho costadom' ha” “and I will stay in Valencia, which has cost me dear”.^[8][9][10]

Semantic evolution

In Berceo costar also meant “to be dear to, be loved by”: „parientes e amigos que mucho li costaban” “relatives and friends who were very dear to him”.^[8][11] The sense “to be bought for a price” is in the Alfonsine Partidas, and the General estoria already has caro uos costará, “it will cost you dear”.^[12] Nebrija gave costar por precio as Latin consto.^[13]

Autoridades notes the change of o to ue in the present and records the phrase costar la torta un pan, said of something got at too high a price.^[14] Today it also means that something is hard for a person (le cuesta madrugar) and that a task takes a certain time.^[15][1] In Argentina costiarse is to take the trouble to go somewhere.^[2]

Timeline

• 1099 – custare in a Latin document.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][3]
• c. 1230 – Berceo uses it for “to be dear to”.^[8]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's costar por precio.^[13]
• 1520 – first record in the Americas, in Darién.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records costar la torta un pan.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cost: to be bought or obtained for a certain price: El billete me costó veinte euros.^[4][1]
2. To be on sale at a certain price.^[4]
3. To cause worry, trouble, harm or difficulty.^[4]
4. To be hard for someone: Me cuesta entender sus razones.^[15][1]
5. To take a certain time to do.^[15]

Word family

• coste
• costo
• costoso

Related words

• constar
• Latin constō

Usage notes

Costarle caro algo a alguien is to suffer great harm from something one did.^[4] Colloquial phrases for “to be very expensive” include costar un ojo de la cara.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 222
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. costar
4. ^ a b c d e 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. costar
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c 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. 803
9. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière
10. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 148
11. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra
12. ^ 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. costar
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 320
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 641
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. costar
16. ^ 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. constar