cuadrar

Forms

cuadrar (first-person singular present cuadro, first-person singular preterite cuadré, past participle cuadrado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish quadrar, inherited from Latin quadrāre (“to make square; to fit, suit”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Corominas notes that the Latin verb already meant “to fit, be well adapted”, in Cicero and Petronius, beside “to square”.^[2][3] It is formed from quadrum (“a square”), or from quadrus (“square”), which comes from quattuor (“four”).^[6][1]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese quadrar, Galician cadrar, Catalan quadrar, Occitan cairar, French carrer and Italian quadrare.^[7][8][1] The REW also gives Catalan cayrar, and codrar as a loan from Spanish.^[7] Nascentes takes the Portuguese verb to be learned.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas cites charters of 929, 951 and 1080 from Menéndez Pidal's Orígenes in which the verb means “to fall to someone's share”, a special use of the sense “to fit”;^[2][10] Medieval Latin had the same sense.^[2][10] In Spanish prose, Alfonso X's Cánones de Albateni (1254–1260) use quadrar for dividing a circle into quarters: et desi faz quadrar este cerco “and then divide this circle into four”.^[5][11] The Lapidario (c. 1250) already has the participle quadrada “square”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija (c. 1495) defines cuadrar as “to put into a square”, Latin quadro.^[13] The sense “to suit, fit” is common from Juan de Valdés on, and Cervantes writes para que mejor me quadre tal nombre “so that such a name may suit me better”.^[2][14] The Academy's 1817 edition gives “to conform with” and “to please”; the 1843 edition adds the senses of geometry, arithmetic, carpentry and painting, and the reflexive of a soldier standing to attention.^[15][16] In 1884 the Academy defined squaring as raising to the second power.^[17]

In Mexico cuadrar “to like” was so common that it replaced gustar, and García Icazbalceta noted that it had become vulgar.^[18][19] Alemany (1917) records the Venezuelan reflexive “to shine, come off well” and the Chilean “to be ready”.^[20] Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo use the reflexive for “to grow rich”.^[21] In bullfighting the matador squares the bull, making it bring its forefeet together.^[4][22] Several countries use it for parking a car, for starting a love affair and for taking a defiant stance.^[19][23]

Timeline

• 929 – a charter in Menéndez Pidal's Orígenes has the verb in the sense “to fall to someone's share”.^[2][3]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has the participle quadrada.^[12]
• 1254–1260 – the Cánones de Albateni have quadrar “to divide into quarters”.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija defines it as “to put into a square”.^[13]
• 1539 – first record in the Americas, in New Granada, in the sense “to fit”.^[24]
• 1817 – the Academy records “to conform” and “to please”.^[15]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the technical senses and the military reflexive.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy defines raising to the second power and gives the Latin etymology.^[17]
• 1917 – Alemany records senses of Mexico, Venezuela and Chile.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To give something a square shape.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To make the debit and credit totals of an account agree;^[4] (intransitive), of an account, to balance.^[4]
3. (transitive, carpentry) To square timber.^[4]
4. (transitive, geometry) To find the square equal in area to a given figure.^[4]
5. (transitive, mathematics) To square a number, raising it to the second power.^[4]
6. (intransitive) To fit, agree or conform with something: Su versión no cuadra con los hechos.^[4][25]
7. (intransitive) To please or suit: Ven cuando te cuadre.^[4][25]
8. (reflexive) To stand to attention, still and upright with the feet together.^[25][26]
9. (bullfighting) To square the bull, leaving it standing with its feet together for the kill.^[4][25]
10. (Mexico, Central America, Bolivia) To like: No me cuadra ese plan.^[19][18]
11. (Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru) To park a vehicle.^[19][23]
12. (Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela) To start a love affair with someone.^[4][19]
13. (Dominican Republic, Venezuela) To make one's fortune, to succeed.^[4][19]

Word family

• descuadrar
• encuadrar

Related words

• cuadratura
• cuadro
• cuadrado
• escuadra
• cuatro
• Latin quadrus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 2, 255
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuadro
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. cuadrar
5. ^ a b c 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. cuadrar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. quadrare
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. quadrar
10. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cuadrar
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cuadrar
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 321
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. 336
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 256
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 208
17. ^ 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), p. 310
18. ^ a b García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. cuadrar
19. ^ a b c d e f Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cuadrar
20. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 483
21. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 269
22. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 178
23. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. cuadrar
24. ^ 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. cuadrar
25. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuadrar
26. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cuadrar