Etymologically
Log in

cultivar

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Spanish word cultivar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1427–1428 Enrique de Villena, translation of the Aeneid, in a 1442 copy More words from the 15th century
Borrowed from
Latin cultivo
Ultimate origin
Latin colō

Pronunciation

  • /kultiˈbaɾ/, [kul̪.t̪iˈβ̞aɾ][1]

Forms

cultivar (first-person singular present cultivo, first-person singular preterite cultivé, past participle cultivado)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin cultīvō (“to till, cultivate”).[2][1] Corominas explains the Medieval Latin verb as a Latinisation of Old French coutiver (12th century) or Italian coltivare (Dante), both formed on an adjective meaning “cultivated”, said of land: couti and coltivo.[2] DICCA-XV follows the French explanation.[3] The adjective is a popular derivative of Latin cultus, the participle of colō (“to till, tend; honour”);[1] Wiktionary instead derives the Medieval Latin verb from cultīvus (“tilled”).[2][1] The DLE derives the Spanish verb from the noun cultivo, which Corominas first finds only in 1644.[4][2]

Wiktionary takes the Latin verb back through Proto-Italic *kʷelō to Proto-Indo-European *kʷélh₁eti, from the root *kʷelh₁-.[1] Asturian has the form cautivar.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Enrique de Villena's translation of the Aeneid (1427–1428, in a copy of 1442) speaks of sacred places where the virtues were cultivadas “cultivated”.[5] The farming sense appears in a royal letter of 1489, where a landowner wishes cultiuar e desmontar “to cultivate and clear” his woods and land.[5] Corominas's first record is Fernández de Villegas in 1515.[2]

Semantic evolution

In 1490 Alfonso de Palencia explained Latin cultores as those who cultiuan the fruits of the earth.[5] The conquistadors' letters and chronicles of the 1520s use the verb often for the farming of the new lands, and records from Puebla begin in 1534.[5][6] Covarrubias in 1611 gives the proper sense “to work the land so that it bears fruit” beside cultivar el ingenio “to exercise the mind”.[7] The Diccionario de Autoridades adds a metaphorical sense, to bring something to its due perfection, illustrated by Lope de Vega's poet who cultiva his poem.[8] Terreros applied it to virtues, friends and sciences “by analogy with the cultivation of plants”, and the Academy's edition of 1817 set out the figurative senses still in the DLE: keeping up a friendship, exercising one's talent or memory, practising an art, a science or a language.[9][10][4] The 22nd edition (2001) added the biological senses, growing microorganisms and raising living beings for commercial or scientific ends.[11]

Timeline

  • 1427–1428 – Enrique de Villena uses cultivadas of virtues, in a copy of 1442.[5]
  • 1489 – a royal letter uses cultiuar of land.[5][3]
  • 1515 – Fernández de Villegas, Corominas's first record.[2][12]
  • 1534 – the first record from the Americas, in Puebla.[6]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records cultivar el ingenio.[7]
  • 1644 – the noun cultivo is first recorded.[2]
  • 1817 – the Academy lists the figurative senses of friendship, talent and the arts.[10]
  • 1899 – the Academy derives the verb from cultivo.[13]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cultivate or till: to give the land and plants the work they need to bear fruit; to grow plants.[4][1]
  2. To keep up and strengthen an acquaintance or a friendship: Cultivó durante años la amistad de su antiguo profesor.[4][14]
  3. To develop or exercise one's talent, wit or memory.[4]
  4. To practise or devote oneself to an art, a science or a language.[4][15]
  5. To breed or farm living beings for industrial, commercial or scientific purposes: cultivar mejillones.[4][14]
  6. (biology) To grow microorganisms on a suitable medium.[4]

Word family

  • cultivo
  • cultivador
  • cultivable
  • culto
  • cultura
  • Latin colō
  • French cultiver

Usage notes

Cultivar is also a masculine noun (plural cultivares), the botanical term for a cultivated variety of a plant.[1] The Wikcionario takes this noun from the English word cultivar, a contraction of cultivated variety coined by the American botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 288
  3. ^ 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, p. s.v. cultivar
  4. ^ 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. cultivar
  5. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cultivar
  6. ^ a b 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. cultivar
  7. ^ 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. 555
  8. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 698
  9. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 579
  10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 265
  11. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. cultivar
  12. ^ 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. 149
  13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 297
  14. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cultivar
  15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cultivar
  16. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. cultivar

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Cultivar.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/cultivar. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·