destruir

Forms

destruir (first-person singular present destruyo, first-person singular preterite destruí, past participle destruido)^[1] Old Spanish also had destroir, the form Autoridades calls the old one, and estroir in the Libro de Alexandre.^[2][3] Berceo has the half-popular preterite destruxo beside the learned past participle destruto.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish destruir, borrowed from Latin dēstruō (“to pull down, demolish”).^[4][5][6][1] Corominas calls it a learned word that entered Spanish much earlier than construir, first recorded only in 1495.^[4][5] The Old Spanish preterite destruxo looks half-popular, but the past participle destruto shows that the verb was taken from written Latin.^[4]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese destruir, Old Catalan destrohir, French détruire and Italian struggere, which in Italian also means “to melt”.^[7][1]

dēstruō is formed from Latin dē- + struō (“to pile up, build”), and is the opposite of cōnstruō.^[8][1][9] struō goes back to Proto-Italic *strowō and Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to strew, spread out”).^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is in the Liber Regum (1194–1211, in a copy of the early 13th century), where King Nebuchadnezzar takes a city: e desbarato tota la cibdath e destruiela “and he wrecked the whole city and destroyed it”.^[11] Corominas's first records are in Berceo, the Conde Lucanor and Alfonso de Palencia, and the Breve diccionario dates the verb 1220–1250.^[4][5] In all these texts it means to tear down or lay waste a city or a building.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already used the verb for material ruin, for undoing something immaterial, for taking away a person's livelihood and for squandering wealth.^[12] Berceo also used it for defeating an opponent in argument.^[13] Autoridades (1732) gives the physical sense and the figurative one, an idea or an argument, and quotes the Conde Lucanor for the sense “to deprive of one's means”.^[2] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 added “to squander one's estate”, and the 1899 edition the algebraic use of the pronominal verb, said of two equal quantities of opposite sign that cancel out.^[14][15] Today's dictionary adds a sense not in the older editions, to affect a person deeply.^[6]

In Judeo-Spanish destruir “to destroy” stands beside estruir “to wear out by long use”.^[16] In the Americas the verb is recorded from 1493, in the form destroír.^[17]

Timeline

• 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum has destruiela “destroyed it”, the earliest hit in the CDH.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – the Breve diccionario's date; the DCECH quotes Berceo.^[4][5]
• c. 1250 – the Setenario has the derivative destruimiento.^[4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses destruirse of a stone that crumbles away.^[12]
• 1493 – first record in the Americas, in the form destroír.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin destruere, “to undo what is done, ruin it, lay it waste”.^[18]
• 1732 – Autoridades notes that the old form was destroir.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, “Del lat. destruĕre”.^[19]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the algebraic sense of destruirse.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To destroy something material, breaking it to pieces or burning it to ashes, or to do it grave damage: El terremoto destruyó media ciudad.^[6][1]
2. To undo or make useless something immaterial, such as an argument or a plan.^[6]
3. To affect someone deeply, to crush a person's spirits.^[6]
4. To squander or waste something.^[6]
5. (rare) To take away a person's means of support, or prevent them from getting it.^[6]
6. (mathematics, pronominal) Of two equal quantities of opposite sign: to cancel out.^[6]

Word family

• destrucción
• destructor
• destructivo
• destructible
• indestructible

Related words

• construir
• instruir
• obstruir
• estructura
• Latin dēstruō
• Portuguese destruir

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like huir, with y before a vowel ending: destruyo, destruyó, destruyendo.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 239
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2228
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 179
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. construir
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. destruir
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. destruere
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. destruo
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. destruo
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. struo
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. destruir
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. destruir
13. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 299
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 317
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 349
16. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. destruir
17. ^ a b 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. destroír
18. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 664
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 377