entender

Forms

entender (first-person singular present entiendo, first-person singular preterite entendí, past participle entendido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish entender, inherited from Latin intendō (“to stretch out, direct”).^[2][3][1][4] Applied to the mind, the Latin verb meant “to turn one's attention”, hence “to hear” and “to understand”, and also “to intend”.^[2][5] The learned intender is a doublet.^[1]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese entender, Galician entender, Catalan entendre, French entendre and Italian intendere.^[6][4] In French and Occitan the verb came to mean “to hear”, while in Italian it means “to understand” and in the old language also “to hear”.^[6]

The Latin verb is formed in- and tendō (“to stretch”),^[1][7] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[7][1]

The noun “understanding, opinion” is the infinitive used as a noun.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the participle: Bishop Jerónimo is bien entendido es de letras, “well versed in letters”; the Cid also uses the verb for understanding what is said.^[9][10][2] The Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) has Non entendes las profecías, “you do not understand the prophecies”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish entender covered understanding, considering, believing, perceiving and learning, and entender en could mean “to fall in love with”.^[10] Alfonso X used it for understanding, for knowing something perfectly and for grasping someone's intention.^[11] Nebrija gave Latin intelligo as its equivalent.^[12][13] Covarrubias, who derived it from intelligere, recorded entender en algo “to work at something” and the proverb a buen entendedor, pocas palabras.^[14] Autoridades (1732) noted the diphthong of entiendo and the senses “understand”, “know well” and “notice”.^[15]

The Academy's dictionaries of the 19th century added the legal sense of a judge who hears a case (by 1869) and the reciprocal entenderse “to be in agreement”.^[16][17] In slang entender means “to be gay”.^[3][1] The noun is recorded from 1240–1250 in the CORDE, and the phrase a mi entender “in my opinion” was in Alemany's dictionary in 1917.^[8][18] Spanish entender passed into Tagalog and Paraguayan Guarani.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has entendido and the verb.^[9][2]
• c. 1180 – the Auto de los Reyes Magos uses entendes.^[9]
• 1208 – the Cortes of León, the first hit in a contemporary document.^[9]
• 1240–1250 – the infinitive used as a noun.^[8]
• c. 1250 – the derivative entendimiento appears.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin intelligo.^[12]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records a buen entendedor, pocas palabras.^[14]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes the irregular entiendo.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin intendere “to direct, apply”.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To understand: to have a clear idea of something: No entiendo esta pregunta.^[3][1]
2. To know something thoroughly; to grasp, see into.^[3]
3. To understand someone's mind or intention.^[3]
4. To infer, deduce.^[3]
5. To intend, to show the will to do something.^[3]
6. To think, believe, judge: Entiendo que conviene esperar.^[3]
7. (intransitive) To be an expert in a subject, with de: Mi tío entiende de relojes.^[3]
8. (intransitive) To deal with something, with en; of an authority, to have jurisdiction over a matter: Este tribunal entiende en los recursos.^[3]
9. (intransitive, slang) To be gay.^[3][1]
10. (reflexive) To know one's own mind; to have a hidden reason for acting in some way.^[3]
11. (reciprocal) To agree, to get along; to have an affair.^[3][1]

Noun

1. Understanding, opinion: A mi entender, el plan es bueno.^[3][1][18]

Word family

• entendérselas
• malentender
• entendimiento
• entendido
• entendedor
• entendederas
• desentenderse
• sobrentender
• malentendido

Related words

• entendible
• tender
• intender
• intención
• Latin intendo
• French entendre

Usage notes

Dar a entender means “to give to understand, hint”, a phrase already in Old Spanish.^[10][1] The proverb a buen entendedor, pocas palabras is “a word to the wise”.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tender
3. ^ 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. entender
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3502
5. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b 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 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. entender
9. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. entender
10. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 222
11. ^ 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. entender
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (c. 1495), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca (facsimile, Madrid: Real Academia Española 1951), p. 102
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 346
14. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 746
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 499
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 302
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 315
18. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 672
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. 435