empachar

Forms

empachar (first-person singular present empacho, first-person singular preterite empaché, past participle empachado)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote enpachar; an old Castilian empechar is recorded too.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old Occitan empachar (“to hinder”), as Corominas holds, which was itself taken from Old French empeechier (“to hinder, obstruct”) (today French empêcher).^[4][5][6] The DLE derives it directly from French, and Wiktionary from Old French.^[7][1] The Old French verb is a semi-learned outcome of Late Latin impedicāre (“to fetter”), from pedica (“fetter, snare, chain”), which is derived from pēs (“foot”).^[4][5][8] The Late Latin verb is recorded from the 4th century, in Ammianus Marcellinus and the Burgundian laws; it is not derived from its classical synonym impediō, although both go back to the word for “foot”.^[4]

The late first record shows the word is foreign, Corominas argues, and so do the forms of the neighbouring languages: Catalan empatxar and Portuguese empachar must be loans because of their ⟨ch⟩, and Italian impacciare has a ⟨cci⟩ that does not match.^[4] Old Occitan has the verb from the end of the 13th century, and perhaps already in its early years.^[4] French ⟨e⟩ in an open syllable often answered to Occitan ⟨a⟩, so the French verb was adapted with ⟨a⟩ in Occitan.^[4] Spanish took the word from Occitan, directly or through Catalan.^[4] A native verb would not have the ⟨a⟩ of the stem.^[4]

Diez and Cuervo, and later Feiler, derived the Occitan and Spanish verbs from *impactāre, a frequentative of impingō (“to thrust against”).^[4] Corominas rejects this because the French and Occitan verbs mean exactly the same, and follows the REW.^[4] García de Diego derives the old form Old Spanish empechar from *impediare and allows a French source for the modern verb only in some cases.^[3] Covarrubias took the word from Italian.^[9] The Academy's Autoridades thought it too old in Spain for that and suggested the Latin verb for “to hinder” or the old verb empecer.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the CDH is in Alfonso X's General Estoria (c. 1275), describing the buharro as una aguilocha modorra, e que see siempre queda e muy empachada “a drowsy little eagle that always sits still and very sluggish”; the DPCAX files this use under “to disguise, conceal”.^[2][11] The Crónica de 1344 has enpachados con las guerras “taken up with the wars”.^[2] Corominas's first record is López de Ayala, about 1385.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “to hinder, get in the way of”, is the one Nebrija gives (Latin impedio, praepedio) and the one the 1732 Autoridades puts first.^[12][10] Autoridades also records the sense “to embarrass, fill with shame”, mostly in the passive.^[10] The sense “to cause indigestion”, more often reflexive, is in the Academy's dictionary of 1817, beside “to disguise, conceal”.^[13] It appears in America in 1571, in Arequipa: a fruit that no empacha el estómago “does not lie heavy on the stomach”.^[14]

In Chile empacho was used for an inflammation of the bowels, and the verb for “to bore, tire” (me tienes empachado).^[15] Alemany records a Mexican use for a candlestick socket clogged with wax.^[16] Moliner adds “to cloy”, also figuratively.^[17] The noun empacho is recorded from 1475, and despachar from 1406: it was taken from Old French despeechier (now dépêcher), through Occitan, by changing the prefix of empeechier.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – the General Estoria has empachada (CDH's earliest hit).^[2]
• 1344 – enpachados in the Crónica de 1344.^[2][18]
• c. 1385 – López de Ayala, the DCECH's first record.^[4][5]
• 1406 – despachar is recorded.^[5]
• 1475 – the noun empacho is recorded.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija translates it with Latin impedio.^[12]
• 1520 – first record from the Americas, in Cuba.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Italian.^[9]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the senses “to hinder” and “to embarrass”.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy records “to cause indigestion”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hinder or get in the way of; to bother; also reflexive.^[7][1]
2. To cause indigestion; usually reflexive, to get indigestion or stuff oneself: Se empachó de turrón en Nochebuena.^[7][1]
3. To tire or cloy by excess.^[17][19]
4. To disguise or conceal.^[7][17]
5. (reflexive) To be embarrassed or abashed: Nunca se empachó de reconocer sus errores.^[7][19]

Word family

• empacho
• despachar
• empachoso
• desempachar

Related words

• impedir
• French empêcher
• Catalan empatxar

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. empachar
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. empachar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 568
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. empachar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4296
7. ^ a b c d e 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. empachar
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. empêcher
9. ^ 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. 724
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 402
11. ^ 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. empachar
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 341
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 347
14. ^ 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. empachar
15. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. s.v. empachar
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 642
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. empachar
18. ^ 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. empachar
19. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. empachar