cubrir

Forms

cubrir (first-person singular present cubro, first-person singular preterite cubrí, past participle cubierto)^[1] The old form cobrir was usual until Nebrija's time and later;^[2] crubir also occurs in Old Spanish.^[3][2] The participle is irregular: cubierto, Old Spanish cobierto.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish cobrir, inherited from Latin cooperiō (“to cover completely”).^[3][4][5][1] The irregular participle cubierto continues coopertus.^[6] Covarrubias already explained it as a contraction of the Latin verb.^[7]

The Latin verb is formed from con- and operiō (“to shut, close, cover”).^[8][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *op-wer-i(e)- (“to cover up”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer- (“to cover”).^[9][1]

The same verb is Portuguese cobrir, Galician cubrir, Asturian cubrir, Catalan cobrir, Occitan cobrir, French couvrir, Italian coprire and Romanian acoperi.^{[10][11][12][1]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds the participle, as cuberto and copierto, in documents of the second half of the 10th century.^[3] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the two chests filled with sand and cubiertas de guadalmecí “covered with embossed leather”, and Cid 2807 con el so manto a amas las cubrió “he covered them both with his cloak”.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used cobrir for hiding one thing with another, for protecting (montes, cubritnos “mountains, cover us” in Berceo's Signos del Juicio) and for putting on a garment, as in the Cid's cubrió un manto.^[14] Alfonso X's prose has it for roofing a building.^[15] Covarrubias (1611) gave cubrirse de luto “to put on mourning”, cubrir las faltas “to hide faults” and the stallion's covering of the mare.^[7] The Academy's 1884 edition records the military sense of defending a post and marks “to dress” as old;^[16][17] Alemany (1917) gives the reflexive “to put on one's hat”, and the privilege of a grandee of Spain who covers his head before the king.^[16][17]

In Cuban baseball the verb means to play a given position, from English cover.^[18]

Timeline

• 900s – the participle cuberto, copierto in documents.^[3][4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses cubrir and cubierto.^[13][14]
• 1218–1300 – cobrir in a contemporary account of building costs.^[13]
• 1256–1300 – Alfonso X's legal prose uses cubierto for a roofed church.^[15]
• 1530 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains it as a contraction of Latin cooperire.^[7]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary marks the sense “to dress” as old.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cover, hide one thing by putting another over it; also reflexive.^[5][1]
2. To fill in a hollow, levelling it.^[5]
3. To spread something over the surface of another thing: La nieve cubría los tejados.^[5]
4. To hide or disguise something skilfully, so that it seems something else.^[5]
5. (zoology) Of a male: to mate with the female.^[5][1]
6. To put a roof on a building, or over an open space.^[5]
7. (military) To defend a position from enemy attack; to protect the advance or retreat of others.^[5]
8. Of troops or sailors: to take their places for combat, drill or salute.^[5]
9. To fill or complete something; to fill a post or vacancy, or staff a service: Ya han cubierto la plaza de conserje.^[5]

Word family

• cubierto
• cobertizo
• cobertor
• cobertura
• descubrir
• encubrir
• encubierto
• encubertar
• recubrir
• cubrecama
• cubreobjetos

Related words

• cobertera
• cubierta
• cubrimiento
• abrir
• Latin cooperiō
• Portuguese cobrir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 141
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 263
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cubrir
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. cubrir
6. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 509
7. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 539
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1870
12. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 787
13. ^ 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. cubrir
14. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 119
15. ^ 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. cubrir
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 315
17. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 489
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cubrir
19. ^ 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. cobrir