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enseñar

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word enseñar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1140 Cantar de mio Cid More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin insigno
Ultimate origin
Latin signum
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sīgnum
Aromanian semnu
Italian segno
Spanish seña
English sign
French signe
Spanish signo
Latin signō
French signer
Latin īnsignō
Italian insegnare
Spanish enseñar
From the same root
English signet ← sīgnum
Latin antesignanus ← sīgnum
Latin īnsignis ← sīgnum
Latin sigillum ← sīgnum
Latin signālis ← sīgnum
Latin signifer ← sīgnum
Latin significō ← sīgnum
English signage ← sign
Latin assignō ← signō
Latin cōnsignō ← signō
Latin dēsignō ← signō
Latin dissignātiō ← signō
Latin obsignō ← signō
Latin resignō ← signō
Latin signātor ← signō
Latin signātūra ← signō
Latin subsigno ← signō
Italian insegnante ← insegnare

Pronunciation

  • /enseˈɲaɾ/, [ẽn.seˈɲaɾ][1]

Forms

enseñar (first-person singular present enseño, first-person singular preterite enseñé, past participle enseñado)[1] Old Spanish texts write ensennar, enssennar and ensenyar;[2][3][4] Asturian has ensiñar.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin īnsignāre (“to mark, designate”), a verb of the glossaries that replaced Latin īnsignīre in popular speech.[4][5][1][6] It is formed with in- on signō (“to mark”), from signum (“mark, sign”), the source of seña.[1][7][8] The Romance languages have kept it everywhere: Romanian însemna means “to indicate”, elsewhere “to teach”, and in Ibero-Romance and Occitan also “to show”.[4]

The same word is Portuguese ensinar, Galician ensinar, Asturian ensiñar, Catalan ensenyar, Occitan ensenhar, French enseigner and Italian insegnare.[9][4][1][10] That Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *segnāō.[1]

Covarrubias derived the verb from īnsinuāre or from the Latin noun for “sign”, and also toyed with the idea of putting doctrine into the breast, the seno.[11] Autoridades too took that Latin verb as the root of the sense “to teach”, but saw the preposition en and the noun for “sign” in the sense “to show”.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) it means “to show”: the speakers plan to take their wives to the lands of Carrión and „enseñarlas hemos dó las heredades son” “we will show them where the estates are”.[3][13] The Tentative Dictionary gives both “to teach” (Libro de Apolonio) and “to show” (Cid, Apolonio) for Old Spanish.[14]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses it for teaching a science, for giving a warning or example, for indicating and for showing.[15] Nebrija gave Latin doceo, instituo and erudio as its equivalents.[16] The derivatives enseñamiento (13th century) and enseñanza (Nebrija, 1495) named teaching.[4][8]

The reflexive enseñarse “to learn” is found in José de Acosta (1590), Lope and Tirso and in Mateo Alemán;[4] Corominas describes it as now mainly Andalusian, very much alive in Almería, where aprender is hardly heard.[4] The Academy recorded the reflexive in the sense “to grow used to something” in 1843.[17] The verb is often used in threats (“I'll teach you to …”).[18][19] In El Salvador, in country speech, it also means to lead a prayer such as the rosary.[20]

Timeline

  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for “to show”.[3][4]
  • c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) has ensenno.[3]
  • 1208 – the Cortes of León have the first instance without a later copy.[3]
  • 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas uses it for teaching astronomy.[15]
  • 1495 – first record of the noun enseñanza.[8]
  • 1528 – the first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.[21]
  • 1590 – José de Acosta uses enseñarse for “to learn”.[4]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as “to give doctrine”.[11]
  • 1843 – the Academy adds the reflexive “to grow accustomed”.[17]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To teach, instruct or train with rules or precepts: Mi abuela me enseñó a coser.[5][1]
  2. To serve as a lesson, warning or example for later conduct.[5]
  3. To indicate, point out: Le enseñé el camino a la estación.[5][12]
  4. To show something so that it is seen and admired.[5][1]
  5. To let something be seen without meaning to.[5]
  6. (reflexive) To get used to something.[5]
  7. (reflexive, regional) To learn.[4][18]

Word family

  • enseñanza
  • enseñador
  • enseñamiento
  • enseñable

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include enseñar los dientes and enseñar los colmillos “to show one's teeth” and enseñar las cartas “to show one's hand”.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. enseñar
  3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 209
  5. ^ 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. enseñar
  6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3488
  7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 262
  8. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. seña
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1332
  11. ^ 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. 1, 746
  12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 493
  13. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. enseñar
  14. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 221
  15. ^ 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. enseñar
  16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 346
  17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 301
  18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. enseñar
  19. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 700
  20. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. enseñar
  21. ^ 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. enseñar

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Enseñar.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/ense%C3%B1ar. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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