encorvar

Forms

encorvar (first-person singular present encorvo, first-person singular preterite encorvé, past participle encorvado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin incurvō (“to bend, curve”).^[2][1][3] The same Latin verb is Portuguese encurvar, Galician encurvar and Catalan encorbar.^[3][4] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of corvo “curved”, and notes that Old Spanish also had the simple verb corvar.^[5] The learned incurvar goes back to the same Latin word.^[3]

The Latin verb is formed from in- and curvō (“to bend”), or from incurvus (“bent”), and the root word is curvus (“curved, bent”).^[6][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *ku/orwo- and finds the best cognates in Celtic words for “hooked” and Ancient Greek κυρτός (kurtós, “curved”); the traditional link with a root Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to bend, turn”) he considers doubtful.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (1200–1250), a biblical text: encorvense ante ti fijos de tu madre, “let your mother's sons bow down before you”.^[8][9] Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo (c. 1236) describes a sick man whose arms were encorvados, stiff and bent to his chest.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the verb both for bending a thing and for bowing in reverence: in Alfonso X's General Estoria people encoruauan se and lowered their heads before the king.^[10] Corominas and the BDELC date the word only from Nebrija (c. 1495), and DICCA-XV notes the earlier CORDE records.^[5][11][12] Covarrubias in 1611 explained it as bending the knee at the hollow behind it, the corva.^[13]

The Academy added the figurative reflexive “to lean unreasonably towards one side” in 1843, and Gaspar y Roig recorded the riding sense of a horse that arches its back to throw the rider.^[14][15] The DLE also gives the sense of a person stooping with age or illness, and an architectural use, “to vault”.^[2] In the Canaries encorvar a billy goat is to tie its legs at the hock so that it cannot mount the females.^[16]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – encorvense in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[8][9]
• c. 1236 – Berceo describes arms encorvados.^[8]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of the bent knee of a figure of Capricorn.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's encoruar, the date Corominas gives.^[5][11]
• 1595 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1604 – first record of encorvamiento.^[11]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the figurative sense “to lean towards one side”.^[14]
• 1853–1855 – Gaspar y Roig record the riding sense.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bend or curve something; reflexive, to become curved.^[2][1]
2. (architecture, rare) To vault (abovedar).^[2]
3. (reflexive) Of a person: to stoop or hunch with age or illness: Con los años se fue encorvando.^[2][1][18]
4. (reflexive) To lean or incline unreasonably towards one side.^[2][18]
5. (reflexive, riding) Of a horse: to lower its head and arch its neck and back to throw the rider.^[2][18]

Word family

• encorvamiento
• encorvadura
• encorvada
• desencorvar

Related words

• curvar
• corvo
• corvar
• curvo
• incurvar
• Latin incurvō

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 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. encorvar
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3410
4. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. encorbar
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 218
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. encorvar
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. encorvar
10. ^ 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. encorvar
11. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. corvo
12. ^ 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. encorvar
13. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 736
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 295
15. ^ a b 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, 864
16. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. encorvar
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. encorvar
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. encorvar