encontrar

Forms

encontrar (first-person singular present encuentro, first-person singular preterite encontré, past participle encontrado)^[1] Asturian and Galician have alcontrar, and Cantabrian alcontrar and alcuentrar.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is generally considered inherited from Vulgar Latin *incontrare (“to meet, come up against”), formed on the phrase in contrā (“against, facing”).^[3][4][5][1] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of contra, and the Academy's dictionary of 1884 explained it as a compound of the preposition en with this word.^[2][6][7] Meyer-Lübke's REW instead took the Spanish and Portuguese verbs from Occitan or Catalan.^[8]

The same formation is Portuguese encontrar, Catalan encontrar, Italian incontrare and Old French encontrer, the base of French rencontrer.^{[9][8][10][1]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb to about 1200, in the Libre dels tres reys d'Orient, whose manuscript is of 1230–1260: „Encontraron dos peyones grandes & fuertes ladrones” “they came upon two big, strong robbers on foot”.^[2][6][11] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) has Esau ask „A qui son estas conpannas que encontré?” “whose are these companies that I met?”.^[11] The early sense is “to meet, come upon”, and the old verb could also mean “to oppose with hostility”.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the verb rarely meant simply “to find”: Nebrija translates it with Latin verbs of meeting and running into, and gives encontrar con otro peleando “to clash with another in a fight”.^[2][12] Its use with a thing as object begins in the early 17th century, with encontrar la horma de su zapato “to meet one's match” in Panteleón de Ribera, and it is not yet found in the Quijote.^[2][6] Alfonso X's prose already uses it for finding someone, for meeting by chance and, reflexively, for being located.^[13]

Covarrubias (1611) gives “to come upon someone on the road”, the clash of lances in jousts and in war, “to quarrel” and “to agree in thought without having spoken of it”.^[14] Autoridades recognised the transitive sense “to find” (yo encontré lo que deseaba).^[15] Baralt (1855) condemned ¿cómo se encuentra usted? and encuentro que esto es bueno as Gallicisms, and Román repeated the complaint in Chile, but both uses are now senses in the Academy's dictionary.^[16][17][5] The senses “to oppose someone” and “to disagree” are now marked obsolete.^[5] In Honduras the verb means “to get used to a place or activity”.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy).^[11]
• c. 1200 – the Libre dels tres reys d'Orient, Corominas's first record.^[2][6]
• 13th century – Berceo uses encontrado as a noun, “encounter”.^[2]
• 1238 – the BDELC's date for the noun encuentro; the DCECH gives 1283, in the Libros del acedrex.^[6][2]
• 1277 – reflexive “to be located” in Alfonso X's astronomical works.^[13]
• 1335 – Don Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor uses it for meeting someone by chance.^[19]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses encontrar con otro peleando with Latin incurro.^[12]
• 1575 – the first records from the Americas, in Mexico.^[20]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “to encounter, to meet with”.^[21]
• early 17th century – first use with a thing as object, encontrar la horma de su zapato.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “De en y contra”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To find someone or something one is looking for: Por fin he encontrado piso.^[5][1]
2. To come across, meet someone or something by chance (also pronominal, encontrarse con): Me encontré con Luisa en el mercado.^[5][1]
3. To find someone or something in a given state: La encontré muy delgada.^[5]
4. To consider, judge: Encuentro muy justa tu queja.^[5][1]
5. (intransitive, also pronominal) Of a person: to bump into another.^[5]
6. (pronominal) Of two or more people or things: to meet in the same place.^[5]
7. (pronominal) To face each other, as rivals: Las dos selecciones se encuentran en la final.^[5]
8. (pronominal) To be in a given state or place: Mi padre se encuentra en Roma.^[5][1]
9. (pronominal) To agree, coincide.^[5]
10. (pronominal, with con) To be faced with something surprising.^[5]
11. (pronominal, obsolete) To oppose someone; to disagree.^[5]
12. (Honduras) To get used to a place or activity.^[18]

Word family

• encuentro
• encontradizo
• encontrón
• encontronazo
• desencontrarse
• reencuentro

Related words

• contra
• Portuguese encontrar
• Italian incontrare
• French rencontrer

Usage notes

The proverb arrieros somos y en el camino nos encontraremos warns that a wrong will be paid back.^[1] Purists of the 19th century preferred hallar in the sense “to find”.^[16][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 182
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3403
4. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 259
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. encontrar
6. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. contra
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 424
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. *incontra
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1314
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. encontrar
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 343
13. ^ 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. encontrar
14. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 735
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 448
16. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 269
17. ^ a b 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. 234
18. ^ 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. encontrar
19. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 212
20. ^ 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. encontrar
21. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 128