departir

Forms

departir (first-person singular present departo, first-person singular preterite departí, past participle departido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin departiō, formed of dē- and partiō (“to divide, share out”); the DLE and Moliner give the Latin verb with an asterisk, as unattested.^[1][2][3] Corominas treats it in the article on parte, among the derivatives of partir.^[4] Menéndez Pidal's vocabulary of the Cid also starts from the reconstructed Latin verb.^[5] The Academy derived it in 1884 from de and the simple verb.^[6]

The same verb is Catalan departir “to divide, share out, separate”, which Alcover and Moll derive from the Latin verb meaning “to divide”.^[7] Wiktionary lists Old French departir and Italian dipartire among its Romance descendants.^[1] The Latin simple verb is formed on Latin pars (“part”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), where the Infantes fear that moros e cristianos departirán d'esta razón “Moors and Christians will talk of this matter”.^[9] Menéndez Pidal reads it as “to talk” in the sense of “to criticise, gossip”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Corominas traces the senses in order: from the etymological “to divide, separate” (Berceo, Sem Tob) the verb passed to “to explain, set out” (Berceo, the Alexandre, Calila), and last to “to talk, converse”, which is already in the Cid and in Juan Ruiz.^[4] Vox gives the same sequence.^[10] The prose of Alfonso X uses it for “to argue”, “to divide”, “to explain” and “to distinguish”: the sign of Taurus es otrossi departido en treynta grados “is likewise divided into thirty degrees”.^[11]

In 1611 Covarrubias defines it as reasoning when one person asks and the other answers, and adds that one who does all the talking does not departir, because he gives no part; he also gives the sense “to quarrel”.^[12] Autoridades marks the sense “to divide” as antiquated, and the Academy's edition of 1817 keeps only “to talk, converse” as current, with the other senses as old.^[13][14] Cervantes uses it for talking things over in the Quijote, and Cuervo describes it as talking with particular interest or pleasure.^[15][16] Today it is a formal or literary word.^[1][3]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for “to talk of, criticise” (in a 14th-century copy).^[9][5]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar uses it for “to separate” two Hebrews who were fighting.^[9]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita: departo et conparto a mis herederos “I share out among my heirs”.^[9]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for “to divide” and “to distinguish”.^[11]
• 1535 – first record in the Americas, at Cartagena, of two governorships divided by a gulf.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as question-and-answer talk.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades marks the sense “to divide” as antiquated.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy gives “to talk, converse” as the current sense.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, formal) To talk, converse: Después de la conferencia departió un rato con los estudiantes.^[2][1]
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To argue, quarrel (altercar).^[2]
3. (transitive, obsolete) To separate, share out, divide into parts.^[2]
4. (transitive, obsolete) To teach, explain.^[2]
5. (transitive, obsolete) To distinguish, tell apart.^[2]
6. (transitive, obsolete) To reason, judge.^[2]
7. (transitive, obsolete) To mark out the bounds of a country or piece of land (demarcar).^[2]
8. (transitive, obsolete) To hinder (impedir).^[2]

Related words

• partir
• parte
• compartir
• repartir
• Catalan departir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. departir
3. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. departir
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 413
5. ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 210
6. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 348
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. departir
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 537
9. ^ 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. departir
10. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. departir
11. ^ 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. departir
12. ^ 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. 646
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 73
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 285
15. ^ 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, 902
16. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 380
17. ^ 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. departir