demorar

Forms

demorar (first-person singular present demoro, first-person singular preterite demoré, past participle demorado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēmorārī (“to delay, linger”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from dē- and moror (“to delay, stay”), itself from mora (“delay”).^[5][6] Autoridades took it as a compound of de and the Spanish verb morar “to dwell”, which Corominas calls a semi-learned descendant of the simple Latin verb.^[7][8]

In Late Latin the compound came to mean “to stay, dwell”, the sense that passed into Italian dimorare and French demeurer.^[6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas found a single example in Berceo (c. 1230) and no other until the Recopilación de leyes de Indias of 1680, quoted by Autoridades.^[8][10] The CDH shows that it was not rare in the 13th and 14th centuries: in Alfonso X's Estoria de España (1270–84) a king stays demorada fitamiente, permanently, in his town, and the General Estoria uses it for staying and settling in a country.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The medieval sense was “to stay, dwell, remain”, close to that of morar.^[12][8] Autoridades defined it as “to tarry, to stay a long time in a place”.^[7] The Academy's 1884 dictionary gave the transitive “to delay” and the nautical sense, said of an object that lies in a given direction from the observer.^[13]

Corominas notes that demorar “to take long” is very popular in Argentina but much more literary in Spain.^[8] The Tesoro of Puerto Rico remarks that no te demores sounds old-fashioned to a Spaniard but is everyday speech in San Juan.^[14] In Argentina and Uruguay the police demoran a person when they hold him while checking his identity.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – Berceo, Corominas's only medieval example.^[8][10]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España: estar y demorada fitamiente.^[11]
• 1280 – the General Estoria uses it for settling in a land.^[12]
• 1587 – the noun demora is first recorded.^[16]
• 1680 – the Recopilación de leyes de Indias forbids Spaniards to stay in Indian towns longer than a day.^[7][8]
• 1884 – the Academy gives “to delay” and the nautical sense.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To delay, hold back (retardar); also reflexive, “to be delayed”: La lluvia demoró la salida del tren.^[2][1]
2. To stay or stop for a time in a place; in Latin America also “to take long”: No te demores en volver.^[2][17][1]
3. (nautical) Of an object, to lie in a given direction from another place or from the observer.^[2]
4. (Argentina, Uruguay) Of the police, to hold someone while checking their identity or record.^[15]

Word family

• demora

Related words

• demorón
• demoroso
• mora
• morar
• moroso
• Latin dēmoror
• French demeurer

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. demorar
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2180
4. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 169
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 68
8. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 137
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. demorar
11. ^ 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. demorar
12. ^ 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. demorar
13. ^ 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. 346
14. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. demorar
15. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. demorar
16. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. morar
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. demorar