decaer

Forms

decaer (first-person singular present decaigo, first-person singular preterite decaí, past participle decaído)^[1] Old Spanish texts spell the participle decaydo and decaído;^[2] Nebrija also has the variant descaer, which survives in Asturian for the fading of dyed cloth.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *dēcadere (“to fall away”), the Vulgar Latin form that replaced classical dēcidō (“to fall down, fall off”).^[3][5][6][1] Nascentes explains the Vulgar Latin verb as the classical one remade on the simple verb cadō (“to fall”), whose vowel it took back;^[7] Spanish caer continues that simple verb.^[7][3]

The same Vulgar Latin verb gave Portuguese decair, Catalan decaure, Old Occitan decazer, French déchoir and Italian decadere.^[8][9][1] Asturian has the form decaer too.^[9]

The simple verb goes back to Proto-Italic *kadō, and de Vaan tentatively reconstructs a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to fall”, with a cognate in Sanskrit.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a copy of the late 13th century), where the poet laments how the church of Silos es decaída, “has come down”, so poor that three monks can hardly live there.^[2][11] The BDELC dates the word to 1220–1250, the period of Berceo.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the word was used mainly in the participle, of people or things fallen from their former state: the old and enfeebled Aristotle of the Libro de Alexandre, and in the Espéculo nobles who have fallen into poverty.^[2] Alfonso X's astronomical prose also used it for a planet moving away from a point of reference, chiefly the angles of the horoscope, beside the general sense of losing strength.^[12]

The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the two senses the word still has: to decline from what one was, and, of a ship, to fall off the course it was keeping, with a quotation from Solís on ships carried off course by the currents.^[13] Cuervo's dictionary of construction gives 18th- and 19th-century examples with de (decaer de su reputación) and of agriculture or industry that declines.^[14] The derivative decaimiento is recorded beside it, while decadencia (1607) is a learned borrowing from French.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo has the participle decaída (known from a late 13th-century copy).^[2]
• 1254–1260 – the Judizios de las estrellas uses decaydo of a native whose fortune is weakened.^[2]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España calls the sun a light that never decae.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the form descaer with Latin decido and excido.^[4][3]
• 1513 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[15]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the general and the nautical sense.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary explains the word as de and caer.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To decline, to go downhill: to lose part of the qualities that made up the strength, worth or importance of a person or thing: Tras la guerra, el comercio del puerto decayó mucho.^[6][17][1]
2. (nautical) Of a ship: to drift off its intended course, carried by the swell, the wind or the current.^[6][17]

Word family

• decaimiento

Related words

• caer
• decadencia
• recaer
• Latin dēcidō
• Portuguese decair

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like caer (decaigo, decayó).^[13][1] The quality that declines is usually introduced with en (decaer en fuerzas).^[17][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. decaer
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 734
4. ^ 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. decaer
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caer
6. ^ a b c 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. decaer
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. decair
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2494
9. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2127
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 281
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. decaer
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 32
14. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 2, 810
15. ^ 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. decaer
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 338
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
18. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 529