enterrar

Forms

enterrar (first-person singular present entierro, first-person singular preterite enterré, past participle enterrado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *interrāre (“to put into the earth”), formed from Latin terra (“earth”) with the prefix in-.^[1][2] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of tierra, and the Academy's Diccionario de Autoridades already described it as formed from the preposition en and the noun.^[3][4][5] Its stem has ⟨ie⟩ where it is stressed, as in the noun: the first person ⟨entierro⟩ “I bury” beside the infinitive.^[1]

The same verb is Portuguese enterrar, Galician enterrar, Asturian enterrar, Catalan enterrar, Occitan enterrar, French enterrer and Italian interrare.^[1] García de Diego puts it in his article on the Latin noun, beside aterrar “to throw to the ground” and desterrar “to banish”.^[6]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *tersā (“earth”) and Proto-Indo-European *ters-h₂- (“dry land”), and is related to Oscan teras and Old Irish tír (“territory”).^[7] Wiktionary links it with the root *ters- (“dry”), the source of English thirst.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest record is in the Semejanza del mundo (c. 1223), a description of the world, where a philosopher is said to lie enterrado “buried” in the land of Pontus.^[8] Corominas dates the verb to Berceo (1220–1250), in the sense “to put under the earth, to bury”.^[3][4][9] By the mid-13th century it is common in legal texts and royal charters for the burial of the dead, as in a 1255 charter of Alfonso X about the church where yaze enterrado “lies buried” his father, King Ferdinand.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb meant both putting something under the earth and burying the dead, and the second sense became the usual one: the Diccionario de Autoridades (1732) notes that although the verb covers anything covered with earth, such as plants or treasure, it is mostly said of dead bodies.^[3][5] Covarrubias (1611) already recorded the figurative sense “to forget a matter, not to let it be spoken of”.^[10] The Academy's 1884 dictionary has the sense “to outlive someone” and the colloquial phrases contigo me entierren, said to show that one shares another person's taste or opinion, and the ironic ¿dónde entierra usted?, aimed at a braggart.^[11][12]

In much of Latin America, and in Cuba according to Corominas, the verb also means “to stick, drive in” a sharp object: enterrarse una aguja “to run a needle into oneself”.^[3][13][1] The postverbal noun entierro “burial, funeral” is first recorded in the Quijote (1605); earlier Spanish said enterramiento.^[3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo has the participle enterrado, the CDH's earliest record.^[8]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses the verb, the first record Corominas gives.^[3][4]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón speak of the cleric who buried a dead man.^[8]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for putting something under the earth.^[14]
• 1495 – Nebrija gives the Latin humo and funero for enterrar muerto, and records enterrador and desenterrar.^[15][4]
• 1605 – the noun entierro appears in the Quijote.^[3][4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the figurative sense “to forget, hush up”.^[10]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades derives the verb from en and tierra.^[5]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary has the sense “to outlive someone”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put something or someone under the ground, to cover with earth: Enterraron las semillas en el huerto.^[12][1]
2. To bury a dead body.^[12][12][1]
3. To attend someone's funeral.^[12]
4. To make something disappear under something else: El polvo enterró los papeles.^[12][16]
5. (figurative) To forget or set aside a matter, a plan or a hope.^[12][10]
6. (colloquial) To outlive someone.^[12][11]
7. (Latin America) To stick or drive a sharp instrument into something.^[12][13][1]
8. (reflexive, obsolete) Of a person, to withdraw from the company of others, as if dead.^[12]

Word family

• enterrador
• entierro
• enterramiento
• desenterrar

Related words

• soterrar
• tierra
• aterrar
• desterrar
• Latin terra
• Portuguese enterrar

Usage notes

The verb has ie in its stressed forms: entierro, entierras, entierran.^[1] The ironic ¿dónde entierra usted? was used to put a braggart in his place.^[12][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 263
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 488
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tierra
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 504
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. terra
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. enterrar
9. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 223
10. ^ 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. 747
11. ^ a b c d 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
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. enterrar
13. ^ 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. enterrar
14. ^ 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. enterrar
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 346
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. enterrar