entrar

Forms

entrar (first-person singular present entro, first-person singular preterite entré, past participle entrado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish entrar, inherited from Latin intrāre (“to enter”).^[2][3][1] The Glosas Silenses still have the Latin-looking spelling ⟨intrato⟩.^[4] The Latin verb is formed from intrā (“within”).^[1][5] Wiktionary takes the stem back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁énteros (“inner”), and Gómez de Silva likewise to an Indo-European word for “inner” built on the word for “in” with a contrastive suffix.^[1][6]

The same verb is Portuguese entrar, Galician entrar, Catalan entrar, Occitan entrar, French entrer, Italian entrare and Romanian intra.^[7][8] The English word enter is a cognate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Apart from the gloss intrato, the word is first found in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[4][2] As the Cid's men leave Vivar they see a crow on the right, and entrando a Burgos oviéronla siniestra “as they entered Burgos they had it on the left”.^[9] In the poem the verb means “to go in” and “to attack the enemy”, and is usually built with a rather than en.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used it for going in, for charging the enemy and for the beginning of a period of time, with a, en or por.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 records entrar en religión “to take vows”, a musical sense “to come in”, and notes that entrar was then used for “to put in” because meter had taken an indecent sense.^[12] Autoridades also gives transitive “to force one thing into another” and “to include an item in an account”.^[13]

Today the verb also means “to fit”, “to join an organisation”, “to begin” of a season, and in computing “to log in”.^[3][1] In the Middle Ages and the classical language entrar en and entrar a alternated freely; since then Spain has settled on en and the Americas on a.^[4]

Timeline

• 1100 – the derivative entrada is first recorded.^[4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses the verb, mostly with a.^[2][10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario describes caves that feel warm to whoever goes in.^[14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin ingredior and introgredior.^[15]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records entrar en religión and the musical sense.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin intrare.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To enter, go or come in: Entró en la cocina.^[3][1]
2. To go in through an opening: entrar por la ventana.^[3]
3. To fit into something: La maleta no entra en el coche.^[3][1]
4. Of a river, to flow into another river or the sea.^[3]
5. To penetrate: La aguja entró en la tela.^[3]
6. To charge, attack; of a bull, to go for the lure.^[3]
7. To be admitted; to join a body or firm; to take up a career.^[3][1]
8. Of a season or period, to begin.^[3]
9. (computing) To log in; to enter data.^[1]
10. (sports) To tackle a player.^[1]
11. (colloquial, with a dative) To make a pass at someone.^[1]

Word family

• entrada
• entrante
• entrador

Related words

• dentro
• Latin intrō
• Portuguese entrar
• English enter

Usage notes

In Spain the place entered takes en (entrar en casa), in the Americas usually a (entrar a la casa); Leonese agrees with American usage.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. entrar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. entrar
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 644
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. entrar
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. entrar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3529
9. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. entrar
10. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 235
11. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 223
12. ^ 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. 749
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3
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. entrar
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 346
16. ^ 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. entrar
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 436