deber

Forms

deber (first-person singular present debo, first-person singular preterite debí, past participle debido)^[1] Old Spanish wrote it dever throughout.^[2][3] The shortened future and conditional debré, debría were usual until the Golden Age (Garcilaso, Cervantes); Autoridades already called them old-fashioned, but they survive in popular speech in Mexico, Argentina and elsewhere.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dēbeō (“to owe, be under an obligation”) (infinitive ⟨dēbēre⟩); it is spelt Old Spanish dever in the oldest texts.^[2][5][6][1] The noun meaning “duty” is the infinitive used as a noun, a use common to all the Romance languages.^[2][5]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese dever, Galician deber, Catalan deure, Occitan dever, French devoir and Italian dovere.^[7][8][1]

The Latin verb is contracted from *dēhabeō “I hold away from someone, I withhold”, from dē (“from, away”) and habeō (“to have, hold”).^[9][5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already uses it as an auxiliary of obligation: „ciento cavalleros devemos vencer a aquellas mesnadas” “we, a hundred knights, must defeat those hosts”.^[11][3] The first record in a copy of its own time is in the Cortes de Benavente of 1202.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the verb meant both “to owe” and, followed by an infinitive without a preposition, “must, ought to”.^[3][12] In the Golden Age deber de + infinitive expressed either obligation or conjecture; the rule that deber de marks conjecture and deber obligation was introduced by 18th-century grammarians and is already hinted at in Autoridades, while modern Galician still uses deber de for obligation.^[2][4] Wiktionary notes that colloquial Latin American Spanish also uses deber de for obligation.^[1]

The noun deber “moral obligation” is dated by Corominas to the end of the 16th century, in Fray Luis de León, but the DEMel already has it in a Bible translation of about 1400.^[2][13] The 1884 Academy dictionary defined the noun as what one is bound to by religious precepts or natural or positive laws, and recorded the saying debo no rompe panza, said of someone who does not mind being in debt.^[14] In Spain the plural deberes is homework.^[6][1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid: „devemos vencer”.^[11]
• 1202 – the Cortes de Benavente use debe in a contemporary copy.^[11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario: „se non deuen marauillar” “they should not marvel”.^[12]
• c. 1400 – the noun deuer in a Bible translation.^[13]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary renders Latin debeo as dever.^[15]
• Late 16th century – Fray Luis de León uses the noun for “moral obligation”.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives dever from Latin debeo, “to have to pay a debt or obligation”.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary defines the noun and records debo no rompe panza.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be bound to something by divine, natural or positive law; also reflexive, deberse a “to owe oneself to”: Un médico se debe a sus pacientes.^[6]
2. To have a moral obligation towards someone.^[6]
3. To fulfil duties born of respect, gratitude or similar motives.^[6]
4. To owe (money or a material debt): Te debo veinte euros.^[6][1]
5. To be caused by, result from; usually reflexive, deberse a: El retraso se debe a la niebla.^[6][1]
6. (auxiliary) must, should: expressing obligation with the infinitive, and probability with deber de + infinitive: Deben de ser las ocho.^[6][1]

Noun

1. duty: what one is obliged to do.^[6][1]
2. debt, an obligation to pay.^[6][1]
3. (mostly in the plural, Spain) homework.^[6][1]

Word family

• debe

Related words

• débito
• deuda
• deudor
• Latin dēbeō
• Portuguese dever

Usage notes

The Academy distinguishes deber + infinitive (obligation: debes estudiar “you must study”) from deber de + infinitive (supposition: debe de estar en casa “he must be at home”), a distinction the classical authors did not make.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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, 429
3. ^ 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. 189
4. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. deber
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. deber
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. deber
7. ^ 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. 2123
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. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. deber
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. deber
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. deber
13. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. deber
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), p. 337
15. ^ 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. deber
16. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 665