en

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin in (“in, into”), already Old Spanish en.^[2][3][1] Corominas leaves its history to the grammars.^[2]

Latin in, written en in the Duenos inscription, goes back to Proto-Italic *en and Proto-Indo-European *h₁en “in”, the source also of Ancient Greek ἐν (en) and Old Irish in-.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates it to the earliest texts, the Glosas Silenses of the 10th century.^[2][6] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) it means “in, among”: „Mio Cid Ruy Díaz por Burgos entró, en su conpaña sessaenta pendones” “My Cid Ruy Díaz rode into Burgos, sixty pennons in his company”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish did not keep en for rest and a for motion as the modern language does: pasar en, llegar en and caer en are still found in the Guzmán de Alfarache and the Quijote, and such uses are far more frequent in Berceo.^[2] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 called the sense “end point of a verb of motion” old, though still used in some provinces; today entrar en casa is standard.^[8][3] The phrase ir en casa “to go to someone's house” is found in Pérez de Hita, in 19th-century Andalusian writers, in the speech of León and Castile and widely in the Americas, where it has been wrongly called a Gallicism or Italianism.^[2]

With a gerund it means “as soon as” (en llegando), a use Alfonso X already has and that sounds foreign in Argentina.^[9][2] With an infinitive in the same sense (en oír esto) it belongs to Valencian and other eastern writers such as Timoneda and imitates the Catalan construction.^[2] The 1817 dictionary also recorded an old sense “with”, then still used by Valencians.^[8] In Argentina en lo de means “at the house of”.^[10]

Timeline

• 900s – the Glosas Silenses have the word.^[2][6]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it.^[7]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it with a gerund (en sacando) and for the goal of a motion (en lenguaie castellano).^[9]
• 1512 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[11]
• 1611 – Covarrubias relates it to Latin in.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy calls the uses with verbs of motion and in the sense “with” old.^[8]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin in.^[13]

Meanings

Preposition

1. in, at, on: marks the place, time or manner of an action: Vivo en Granada. Nació en invierno.^[3][1]
2. Upon: Deja el libro en la mesa.^[14][1]
3. In (a field of activity): Es experta en historia.^[3]
4. In (a state of progress): La ley está en estudio.^[3]
5. By (a sign by which something is known): La reconocí en la voz.^[3]
6. In (a language or a means): Escribe en inglés. Viajamos en tren.^[1]
7. With a gerund, as soon as, after: En terminando, nos vamos.^[3]
8. Marks the end point of some verbs of motion: Entró en la sala.^[3]
9. (obsolete) with.^[3]

Related words

• Latin in

Usage notes

Old Spanish combined it with the article as enna, ena and eno “in the”.^[15][16] A different Old Spanish and Aragonese word, en or ende “thence, of it”, comes from Latin inde;^[17][18][19] Aragonese still uses it like French en (m'en voy “I am going away”).^[17][18][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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, 584
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. en
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. in
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 256
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 213
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. en
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 350
9. ^ 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. en
10. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. en
11. ^ 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. en
12. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 728
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 388
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. en
15. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. en
16. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 436
17. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 213
18. ^ 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. en
19. ^ a b Borao, Jerónimo (1908), Diccionario de voces aragonesas, 2nd ed., Zaragoza: Imprenta del Hospicio Provincial, p. 14