deshacer

Forms

deshacer (first-person singular present deshago, first-person singular preterite deshice, past participle deshecho)^[1] Old Spanish wrote desfazer, with shorter forms desfer and desfacer beside it.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish des- + hacer, Old Spanish desfazer.^[4][3][5][6] Wiktionary takes it directly from Medieval Latin disfacere and treats the Spanish analysis as synchronic.^[1] hacer is from Latin faciō (“to do, make”).^[3][7] Latin initial /f/ became /h/, later silent, as in the simple verb, so that ⟨desfazer⟩ became ⟨deshazer⟩ and ⟨deshacer⟩.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in a passage on the Flood: Non ennadré mas por aduzir el diluvio por desfer las creaturas “I will not again bring the flood to destroy the creatures”.^[9] Corominas dates desfer to Berceo (1220–50).^[3][5] A Navarrese document of 1243 curses anyone who would desfer aquest nuestro feito “undo this deed of ours”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish already used the verb for wearing away or dissolving: in Alfonso X's Lapidario a stone desfae boils within a day.^[10] In Don Quijote it is the knight's mission, desfacer agravios “to right wrongs”, a phrase Cervantes gives the old form when it mocks the knight's archaic style; he also has deshazer encantamentos “to break spells”.^[11] Covarrubias defines it in 1611 as to blot out what has been done.^[12] Autoridades (1732) gives the senses of taking a thing apart, altering what another has done, and erasing a mark or writing, and notes the old form desfacer.^[8]

The pronominal deshacerse took a range of senses: to be consumed by grief or impatience, to vanish from sight, to lavish praise, apologies or insults (deshacerse en elogios), and to get rid of something (deshacerse de algo).^[4][13] In Guatemala it is a colloquial word for breaking wind, and in Bolivia for giving birth.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar has desfer (in a 13th-century copy).^[9]
• 1220–50 – Berceo uses desfer.^[3][5]
• 1243 – a Navarrese settlement with the abbot of Irache: desfer aquest nuestro feito.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija translates deshazer as Latin factum infectum reddere.^[15]
• 1517 – first record from the Americas in Boyd-Bowman's corpus, from Puerto Rico.^[16]
• 1605 – Don Quijote: desfacer agravios.^[11]
• 1611 – Covarrubias: “to blot out what has been done”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To undo, unmake, take apart: Deshizo el nudo con los dedos.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To unpack a suitcase; to strip a bed.^[1]
3. (transitive, also pronominal) To wear away, weaken.^[4]
4. (transitive) To rout or put to flight an army.^[4]
5. (transitive, also pronominal) To melt (derretir); to dissolve a solid in a liquid.^[4][1]
6. (transitive) To cut up, divide: deshacer un pollo.^[4]
7. (transitive) To break off or upset a treaty or business.^[4][1]
8. (pronominal) To be consumed with grief or impatience.^[4]
9. (pronominal) To vanish from sight.^[4]
10. (pronominal) To lavish signs of esteem or their opposite: deshacerse en elogios.^[4]
11. (pronominal) To get rid of something: Me deshice de los muebles viejos.^[4][1]

Word family

• deshacedor

Related words

• hacer
• rehacer
• contrahacer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. deshacer
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 297
4. ^ 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. deshacer
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hacer
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 224
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2626
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3
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. deshacer
10. ^ 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. deshacer
11. ^ a b 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. 398
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. 1, 657
13. ^ 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, 1079
14. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. deshacer
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. deshacer
16. ^ 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. desfacer