disparar

Forms

disparar (first-person singular present disparo, first-person singular preterite disparé, past participle disparado)^[1]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Latin disparāre (“to divide, separate”), which the Romance languages took as the negative of parō (“to prepare”).^[2][1][3] To desparar a crossbow was therefore the opposite of cocking it, the sense of parar “to make ready”.^[2] Wiktionary calls the modern spelling a Latinising alteration of Old Spanish desparar, which was the usual form until Santillana, Gómez Manrique and Nebrija.^[1][2] García de Diego records desparar as “to take apart” and treats the modern form as a learned word.^[4] The 1884 Academy dictionary derived it from Italian sparare.^[5]

The verb is inherited in all the western Romance languages; in the Spanish sense it is shared by Portuguese disparar, Catalan disparar and Italian disparare.^[2] Catalan has the phrase “to discharge the crossbow” in the 13th century, in Desclot.^[2] Old Portuguese of the 15th century also had esparar, with another prefix.^[6]

Latin disparō is formed with dis- (“apart”) and parō.^[7] Cunha and Wiktionary take the base to be the verb “to make equal”, from pār (“equal”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb to about 1400, in the Cancionero de Baena.^[2] The earliest hit in the CDH is in the poems of Ferrán Manuel de Lando (1414–1435, in a copy of about 1465): „si el arco dispara” “if the bow shoots”.^[8] In 1442 Juan de Mena's Homero romanzado has Pándaro shooting the arrow that broke the truce: „disparó la flecha”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was releasing a crossbow or bow.^[9] Nebrija gives desparar tiro as Latin exballisto.^[2][9] In 1611 Covarrubias glosses it as “to break up, ruin”, and disparar la ballesta as shooting the bolt or arrow from it.^[10] Autoridades extended it to firearms and siege engines, and gave the figurative sense “to say or do absurd things”, perhaps a syncope of disparatar.^[11]

In the 16th century it also became a modal verb, “to burst out, start to”: disparar a correr is in the Quijote.^[2] From it came dispararse (c. 1640, Saavedra Fajardo) and intransitive disparar “to run off, flee”.^[2] The Academy no longer admits that use, but it is very much alive in Argentina, other South American countries and Cuba.^[2] In Lima a 1631 document says of a mule „la mula disparó”.^[12]

Today the verb is also used in football for a shot at goal, and reflexive dispararse for prices or violence rising sharply.^[3][13] In Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua it means “to pay for someone, to treat”.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – first recorded, in the Cancionero de Baena.^[2]
• 1414–1435 – Ferrán Manuel de Lando: si el arco dispara.^[8]
• 1442 – Juan de Mena's Homero romanzado: disparó la flecha.^[8]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija still has the older form desparar.^[2][9]
• 16th century – disparar a “to burst out, start to”, and intransitive disparar “to run off”.^[2]
• 1570 – the first record from the Americas, in Peru, of firing an arquebus.^[12]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines disparar la ballesta.^[10]
• c. 1640 – reflexive dispararse, in Saavedra Fajardo.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives the word from Italian.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fire or shoot a weapon or its projectile: Disparó dos tiros al aire.^[3][1]
2. Of a weapon, to go off; also intransitive.^[3][1]
3. To hurl something with force; also reflexive.^[3]
4. To work a trigger or shutter release.^[3][13]
5. To make something rise without restraint; reflexive, to skyrocket: Se dispararon los precios del pan.^[3][1]
6. (sports) To shoot the ball hard, especially at goal.^[3][13]
7. (Mexico) To treat someone, to pay for what others consume.^[3][14]
8. (Cuba, colloquial) To hit a person or animal.^[3]
9. Reflexive, or intransitive in parts of Latin America, to bolt or run off headlong.^[3][14]

Word family

• disparo
• disparador
• disparadero
• disparada

Related words

• parar
• díspar
• Latin disparō
• Portuguese disparar
• Italian disparare

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 393
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. disparar
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2289
5. ^ 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. 393
6. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1208
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. disparō
8. ^ 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. disparar
9. ^ a b c 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. disparar
10. ^ 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. 682
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 303
12. ^ 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. disparar
13. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. disparar
14. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. disparar