embargo

Forms

embargo m (plural embargos)^[1] Old Spanish texts spell the word enbargo as often as embargo, with rarer enuargo and embarguo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from Spanish embargar (“to hinder, obstruct”).^[4][1][5] The verb continues Vulgar Latin *imbarricāre, probably formed on *barra (“bar”).^[5][6][7] García de Diego glosses the Vulgar Latin verb “to obstruct” and its base “crossbar”.^[8]

Corominas notes that the verb is shared by Castilian, Portuguese, Catalan and Occitan, and that it seems old and native in each of them.^[7] He rejects Baist's view that it is a loan from Occitan, pointing out that the noun already occurs in a Latin document of 1020 from Ovarra, in a phrase meaning “without any hindrance”.^[7] The verb also exists in Portuguese and Galician, and the noun in Portuguese: Portuguese embargar, embargo.^[8]

Spanish lent the noun to French embargo (1626) and to Italian imbargo or embargo, first in Algarotti, who died in 1764, and again in 1827.^[7] Gómez de Silva adds that the English word embargo also comes from Spanish.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is the phrase sine ullo embargo “without any hindrance” in a Latin document written in 1020 at Ovarra, on the border between Catalonia and Aragon.^[7][5] In Castilian the word first appears in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), in the sense “hindrance, harm”: nós avremos enbargo “we shall suffer harm”.^[10][3] The Cortes of León of 1208 use the phrase sin otro embargo “without further hindrance”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish embargo meant a hindrance or obstacle, harm or trouble, and also hesitation or misfortune.^[3][11] Berceo used it of the burden of the mortal flesh, and the phrase sin embargo “unhindered, freely” is already in his works.^[12][10] Corominas records the sense “worry, preoccupation” in Berceo's Milagros.^[7]

Nebrija (c. 1495) gives both embargo “hindrance” and embargo de hazienda “sequestration of property”.^[13][14] Autoridades defines it first as the seizure of goods by order of a judge, and explains the word by the hindrance this puts on the free use of the goods.^[15] Terreros adds the detention of ships in port by order of the sovereign, and Gaspar y Roig describe the order by which a government forbids ships to leave its ports.^[16][17] The modern sense, a government ban on trade in arms or other goods, heads the Academy's definitions in 2001.^[18][4]

Autoridades also records embargo for an upset stomach, used of children who have overeaten, in La Rioja and other parts of Castile.^[15] The DLE now marks this sense, like “hindrance” and “harm”, as obsolete.^[4] In Leonese the word still names indigestion in cows.^[19]

The phrase sin embargo kept the old sense “without hindrance”.^[9] Autoridades equates it with no obstante and the older no embargante, and quotes sin embargo de qualquier apelación “notwithstanding any appeal”.^[15] From this it became the usual adversative connective “however, nevertheless”.^[18][20][1] Gómez de Silva bases the phrase on the old sense “obstacle”.^[9]

Timeline

• 1020 – sine ullo embargo in a document from Ovarra.^[7][5]
• c. 1140 – enbargo “harm, hindrance” in the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy).^[10][3]
• 1208 – sin otro embargo in the Cortes of León.^[10]
• 1254 – the earliest occurrence in the Old Spanish Textual Archive, in the Fuero Juzgo.^[21][11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija distinguishes embargo “obstacle” from embargo de hazienda “sequestration”.^[13]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme, in the phrase sin embargo de la guerra “in spite of the war”.^[22]
• 1622 – Richard Hawkins writes of Spain breaking the peace with England by Ymbargo.^[23]
• 1626 – first record of French embargo.^[7]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines the judicial seizure of goods and records the indigestion sense.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “De embargar”.^[24]
• 2001 – the ban on trade in arms becomes the first sense in the Academy's dictionary.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. An embargo: a ban decreed by a government on trade in and transport of arms or other goods useful in war, and by extension on trade with a country: un embargo comercial contra la isla.^[4][25][1]
2. (law) The seizure or distraint of property by order of a judge or competent authority: El juzgado decretó el embargo de la finca.^[4][20][1]
3. (obsolete) indigestion, an overloaded stomach.^[4][15]
4. (obsolete) A hindrance or obstruction (embargamiento).^[4][20]
5. (obsolete) Harm, discomfort.^[4]

Word family

• sin embargo

Related words

• embargar
• desembargar
• desembargo
• barra
• Portuguese embargo

Usage notes

Sin embargo “however, nevertheless” is now far more common than the noun's other uses.^[20] It is an adversative connective: Estaba cansado; sin embargo, siguió trabajando.^[18][20][1] Sin embargo de “notwithstanding” is recorded in the Americas from 1515.^[22] Moliner also gives the conjunction sin embargo de que.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. embargo
3. ^ a b c d Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 208
4. ^ 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. embargo
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. embargar
6. ^ 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. embargar
7. ^ 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, 555
8. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *imbarricare
9. ^ a b c Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. embargo
10. ^ 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. embargo
11. ^ 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. embargo
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 318
13. ^ a b 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. embargo
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 340
15. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 382
16. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 15
17. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 849
18. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. embargo
19. ^ 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. embargo
20. ^ a b c d e f Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. embargo
21. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. embargo
22. ^ 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. embargo
23. ^ Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. embargo
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 412
25. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. embargo