durar

Forms

durar (first-person singular present duro, first-person singular preterite duré, past participle durado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dūrāre (“to last; to harden; to be patient, persevere”).^[2][3][4][1] Latinists disagree whether the sense “to last” and the sense “to harden” belonged to one verb from the start (Walde–Hofmann) or not (Ernout–Meillet); Corominas notes that speakers must have felt them as two senses of one verb.^[2] De Vaan derives it from dūrus (“hard”), with the meaning moving from “be hard” to “endure, last”;^[5] Bénaben mentions a link with dūdum (“a while ago”) and suggests a later confusion of meanings.^[6] The adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *dūro- and Proto-Indo-European *du(e)h₂-ro- (“far, long”), the source also of Ancient Greek δηρός (dērós, “long”);^[5] Wiktionary gives a second theory, *deru- (“hard”).^[1]

The same verb is Portuguese durar, Galician durar, Asturian durar, Aragonese durar, Catalan durar, Occitan durar, French durer, Italian durare and Romanian dura.^[7][8][9]

Spanish also had Old Spanish turar and aturar “to suffer, bear, persevere; to last”, from Berceo to the early 17th century.^[2] Corominas finds it hard to decide whether they are variants of this verb or come from Latin obturare (“to stop up”) and took on its sense;^[2] Cuervo, whom he thinks probably right, favoured the second because Cervantes uses that form for “to block”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already has three senses: “to go on”, in fata Valencia duró el segudar “the pursuit went on as far as Valencia”;^[10][11] “to stay”, in si en estas tierras quisiéremos durar “if we wish to stay in these lands”; and “to take time”, in En ganar aquelas villas myo Çid duró tres años “my Cid spent three years winning those towns”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense “to hold out, persevere” lasted until the 17th century and was commoner in the Middle Ages, when the verb could also be transitive, “to suffer, bear”, as in the Libro de Alexandre.^[2] Alfonso X's prose uses it also for a mountain that “stretches” down to the sea,^[12] a sense of Medieval Latin durare too.^[13][14] The sense “to take long” is in the Quijote.^[2]

The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as “to subsist, remain”, rejected Covarrubias's derivation from a Hebrew word and gave the phrases durar por peñas “to last longer than is natural” and como te curas duras “you last as well as you look after yourself”.^[15] The Academy listed “to stay in a place” and “to extend” as obsolete in 1817,^[16] and in 1869 gave the first sense still in use, “to go on being, working, serving”.^[17] In Leonese and Asturian it also means “to take a long time”,^[18][19] and in Costa Rica ¡que le dure! congratulates someone on a new possession.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid, in a 14th-century copy.^[11][3]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca.^[11][21]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita, the first record in a manuscript of the work's own time.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – durable.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for a mountain that stretches to the sea.^[12]
• 1382 – durante as an adjective, “lasting”; as a preposition, “during”, about 1440.^[3][2]
• 1438 – duradero.^[3]
• c. 1440 – duración.^[3]
• 1532 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[22]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades rejects Covarrubias's Hebrew etymology.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, Latin durare.^[23]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To last, to go on being, working or serving: La tormenta duró toda la noche.^[4][1]
2. To subsist, remain; to hold up without wearing out: Estas botas me han durado diez años.^[4][24]
3. (obsolete) To stay in a place.^[4]
4. (regional) To take a long time, to be slow.^[1][18]

Word family

• duración
• duradero
• durable
• durante
• durabilidad

Related words

• duro
• endurar
• perdurar
• Latin dūrō

Usage notes

Proverbs include no hay bien ni mal que cien años dure “no good or ill lasts a hundred years”^[24] and lo que se aprende en la cuna, siempre dura “what is learnt in the cradle lasts for ever”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 536
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. durar
4. ^ a b c d 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. durar
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. durar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 222
10. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 223
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. durar
12. ^ 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. durar
13. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
14. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 352
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 339
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 293
18. ^ a b Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. durar
19. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. durar
20. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. durar
21. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
22. ^ 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. durar
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 403
24. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. durar