crear

Forms

crear (first-person singular present creo, first-person singular preterite creé, past participle creado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin creō (“to bring forth, produce”), a learned form beside criar, which continues the same Latin verb by the popular route.^{[2][1][3][4][5]} As a popular word the verb survives only in the three Ibero-Romance languages, Portuguese criar, Galician criar and Catalan criar; Italian creare is a learned form, and Old French crier has almost only the learned sense “to make from nothing”.^[4][6]

De Vaan gives the original sense of the Latin verb as “to make grow”, still found in Cato, and reconstructs *krē-jā-, related to crēscō (“to grow”).^[7] Wiktionary traces both to Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- (“to grow”).^[1] Walde and Hofmann explained the Latin verb as derived from a noun, and Hill as an inner-Latin back-formation; de Vaan finds the second too far-fetched.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) the verb means “to produce, engender”.^[8] DEMel's first primary record is a Castilian document of 1269.^[9] The Alfonsine Crónica general uses it for making something from nothing.^[8][10]

Semantic evolution

The distinction between criar and the learned crear came very late.^[4] Applied to God, criar still prevailed in the Golden Age, and it survives in the archaising language of prayer and preaching.^[4] In the Middle Ages crear sometimes meant “to bring up”, as in the Crónica general: e diolos a crear a una muger, en un logar cabe Roma “and he gave them to a woman to bring up, in a place near Rome”.^[11][4] The learned form was preferred first for appointing to an office: Hernando del Pulgar wrote crear cardenal in 1486.^[4] Nebrija's Vocabulario still has criar for “to make anew”, and in the Americas criar was used for appointing officials in 1527.^[12][13]

Autoridades said that crear was used only for setting up a new dignity or appointing someone, and that its use for “to nourish, bring up” was antiquated.^[11] The Academy's 1884 edition added the figurative senses “to compose original literary or artistic works” and “to establish, found”.^[14] The derivatives creación (1611), creador (1679) and creativo (18th century) followed.^[3]

Timeline

• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for “to produce, engender”.^[8]
• 1269 – DEMel's first primary record.^[9]
• 1272–1275 – the General estoria uses it.^[8][15]
• 1486 – crear cardenal in Hernando del Pulgar.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin creo under criar.^[12]
• 1611 – the derivative creación is first recorded.^[3]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades limits it to creating dignities and appointing.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the senses of artistic creation and founding.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To create, produce something new: Picasso creó una nueva manera de pintar.^[2][1]
2. To make something out of nothing, said of God.^[2][16]
3. To found (fundar) or set up something, such as a business or a family: Mis abuelos crearon la empresa en 1950.^[2][17]
4. To establish a new post, office or dignity.^[2]
5. To give rise to something as a result of actions: Las obras crearon tensiones entre los vecinos.^[2]
6. To appoint (nombrar) someone to an office or dignity, especially an ecclesiastical one: Lo crearon obispo de Ávila.^[2][18]
7. (theatre) To perform a role in a highly personal way.^[16]
8. (obsolete) To nourish, bring up; criar.^[2][18]

Word family

• creación
• creador
• creativo
• increado

Related words

• criar
• criatura
• procrear
• recrear
• Latin creō

Usage notes

Román insisted that “to nurse” and “to raise animals” belong to criar only, and that giving them to crear was a fault.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. crear
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. criar
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 241
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d 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)
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
10. ^ 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. 808
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 650
12. ^ a b 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
13. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies)
15. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. crear
17. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
19. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José