encargar

Forms

encargar (first-person singular present encargo, first-person singular preterite encargué, past participle encargado)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish en- + cargar (“to load”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary and Gómez de Silva trace it to a compound Vulgar Latin *incarricare, made of in- (“in, on”) and the Late Latin verb carricare (“to load”).^[1][5]

The same formation is Portuguese encarregar, Catalan encarregar and Italian incaricare.^[1][6] The base keeps a fuller form in Portuguese carregar and Catalan carregar.^[3]

The Spanish base, cargar, continues the Late Latin verb, which already meant “to carry, transport” in the Visigothic laws and other texts of the Visigothic and Merovingian period, and “to load” in a Latin inscription from Africa.^[7] It is a derivative of carrus (“cart, wagon”), a Latin word of Celtic origin.^[7][4] carro and carga belong to the same family.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates encargar to Berceo, in the second quarter of the 13th century.^[3][4] The earliest hit in the CDH is in Berceo's Loores de Nuestra Señora (1236–1246, known from an 18th-century copy), where sinners entrust themselves to the Virgin: en ti nos encargamos todos los peccadores “in thee all we sinners place ourselves”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish already used the verb for putting something in a person's care and for laying a duty on someone: in Alfonso X's Primera Partida (1256–1263) a patron is encargado of a church as a father is of his son's affairs.^[9][8] The literal “to put weight on something” survives in the DLE only as obsolete.^[2]

Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as asking that something be done or carried with great care, and gave the reflexive encargarse de un negocio “to take a matter on oneself”.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades recorded the formula encargar la conciencia, common in church documents and wills, which bound the reader in conscience to carry out an order.^[11] From 1817 to 1899 the Academy also listed an obsolete sense “to urge, press”.^[12][13]

The commercial sense “to order goods to be sent or brought” is in the modern Academy dictionary; in Chile Román had noted it as very common and missing from the Academy's definition.^[2][14] In much of Latin America the verb is used intransitively of a woman, “to become pregnant”, and in some countries of a couple, “to conceive a child”.^[15][2][16]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first recorded, in Berceo.^[4][3]
• 1256–1263 – Alfonso X's Primera Partida uses encargado of a person responsible for something.^[9]
• 1529 – first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[17]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “to charge”.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines encargar and encargarse de un negocio.^[10]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the phrase encargar la conciencia.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from en and cargo.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also reflexive) To entrust something to someone, to put it in their care: Le encargué las plantas a mi hermana durante el viaje.^[2][1][20]
2. (transitive) To recommend, advise or warn.^[2]
3. (transitive) To order something to be brought or sent from elsewhere: Encargamos los muebles a una tienda de Valencia.^[2][1][21]
4. (transitive) To lay an obligation on someone, to commission them to do something.^[2][20]
5. (reflexive, with de) To take charge of, to deal with: Yo me encargo de las bebidas.^[1][20]
6. (obsolete) To put a load or weight on something.^[2]
7. (intransitive, Latin America) Of a woman, to become pregnant.^[2][15]

Word family

• encargado
• encargo

Related words

• cargar
• cargo
• carga
• Portuguese encarregar
• Italian incaricare

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 i j 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. encargar
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 869
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cargar
5. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 258
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1492
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 868
8. ^ 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. encargar
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. encargar
10. ^ 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. 732
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 434
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 353
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 390
14. ^ 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. 228
15. ^ 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. encargar
16. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. encargar
17. ^ 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. encargar
18. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 128
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 422
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. encargar
21. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. encargar