doblar

Forms

doblar (first-person singular present doblo, first-person singular preterite doblé, past participle doblado)^[1] Old Spanish texts also have duple and dupplado, and Autoridades notes an older form dublar.^[2][3] A form dobrar occurs in the 15th-century Cancionero de Baena.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin duplāre (“to double”), a verb formed from Latin duplus (“double”).^[5][1][6] Segura Munguía dates the Spanish verb to about 1140.^[7] Covarrubias and Autoridades derived it from duplicare, the source of the learned duplicar.^[8][3]

The same Late Latin verb is Portuguese dobrar, Catalan doblar, French doubler and Italian doppiare.^[9][1] Catalan also has a form dollar meaning “to round a headland”.^[10][9] The English verb double comes from the French one.^[1]

The Latin adjective continues Proto-Italic *duplos and is made of duo (“two”) and the element -plus (“-fold”), like Ancient Greek διπλόος (diplóos, “double”).^[1][11] The /p/ between vowels became /b/, as in other popular words;^[12] Berceo's editor compares poblar from populare.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the Cid promises the abbot of Cardeña money that will be repaid doblados “doubled”; the poem also uses it for doubling a soldier's pay.^[13][14] The first sense was therefore “to make twice as much”.^[14][7]

Semantic evolution

The participle soon meant “double, twofold”: the early 13th-century Fazienda de Ultra Mar calls Abraham's burial cave la cueva doblada, glossing Latin spelunca duplici.^[13] Berceo used doblar la jornada for a journey there and back.^[12] Alfonso X's prose already has the senses “to bend into an angle”, “to fold one thing over another” and “to bend or warp”.^[15]

Covarrubias in 1611 recorded several uses that are still current: tolling the bells for the dead, folding clothes, doblar la hoja “to turn down the page” to come back to a matter later, and the sailors' doblar la punta “to round a headland”.^[8] A chronicle from the Río de la Plata of 1528 already uses it for rounding the bends of a river.^[16] The DLE also has the sense “to turn a corner, go round into another street”.^[5] The cinema gave it the sense “to dub”, now in the DLE.^[5][1]

In Mexico doblar a man is to shoot him down, and in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to kill him.^[17][18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has doblados “doubled”.^[13][7]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has cueva doblada “double cave”.^[13]
• 1254–1277 – Alfonso X's prose uses it for doubling, folding and bending.^[15]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin duplico and gemino.^[19]
• 1528 – first record in the Americas, for rounding river bends in the Río de la Plata.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records tolling for the dead and rounding a headland.^[8]
• 1732 – Autoridades defines doubling, folding and bending.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from doble.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To double, make twice as much: La empresa dobló sus ventas en dos años.^[5][1]
2. (transitive) To be twice the age of someone: Mi abuelo me dobla la edad.^[5][21]
3. (transitive) To fold, laying one part of something flexible over another: Dobla la toalla antes de guardarla.^[5][1]
4. (transitive, also reflexive) To bend or curve something.^[5][1]
5. (transitive) To persuade someone to think or act against their first intention.^[5]
6. (nautical) To round a cape or headland.^[5][8]
7. (also intransitive) To turn a corner and change direction: Al llegar a la plaza, dobla a la izquierda.^[5][1]
8. (also intransitive) To do one's work twice over, as by working a double shift.^[5]
9. (film, television) To dub.^[5][1]
10. (motor racing) To lap a slower competitor.^[1]
11. (intransitive, of bells) To toll for the dead.^[1][22][8]
12. (Mexico, Central America, colloquial) To shoot someone down; to kill.^[18][17]

Word family

• dobladura
• doblaje
• doblamiento
• desdoblar
• redoblar
• dobladillo

Related words

• doble
• duplicar
• Latin duplus
• Portuguese dobrar

Usage notes

Doblar la esquina “to turn the corner” and doblar la hoja “to turn down the page; to leave a subject for later” are set phrases.^[1][8] The threat doblar por él, literally “to toll for him”, means that someone's death is expected.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. doblar
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 321
4. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 178
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. doblar
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 237
7. ^ a b c Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 204
8. ^ a b c d e f Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 685
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. duplare
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2374
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. duplus
12. ^ a b c Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 307
13. ^ 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. doblar
14. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 220
15. ^ 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. doblar
16. ^ 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. doblar
17. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 579
18. ^ 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. doblar
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 337
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 396
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. doblar
22. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org