escapar

Forms

escapar (first-person singular present escapo, first-person singular preterite escapé, past participle escapado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish escapar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *excappāre (“to get out of an encumbrance”).^[2][3][1][4] The Vulgar Latin verb is formed from ex- (“out”) and cappa (“cape, cloak”), because a cloak hampers movement.^[2][3][1][5] It is not recorded in Latin, but Corominas considers it certain from the descendants it has left in every Romance language.^[2] Wiktionary calls the origin of the Latin noun disputed, perhaps a shortening of capitulāre, from caput (“head”).^[1]

The same verb is Romanian scăpa, Italian scappare, French échapper, Catalan escapar and Portuguese escapar.^[2][4] Diez explained the sense by comparison with Italian incappare “to fall into a danger”: the opposite verb first meant “to free oneself from a hindrance, a danger or an evil”, almost its only sense in the Cid, and only later “to flee”.^[2] Corominas finds Wartburg's idea that it first meant “to give up the friar's habit” rash and unlikely.^[2]

Covarrubias and Autoridades took the image from a man who flees leaving his cloak in the hands of whoever tries to hold him, as Joseph did with Potiphar's wife.^[6][7] The Academy from 1884 derived it from Latin ex (“out”) and captāre (“to catch”).^[8] Alemany in 1917 and the Academy since give the prefix and the Latin noun for “cape”.^[8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has it in the sense “to get away, come out of a danger”: „por oro nin por plata non podrié escapar” “neither for gold nor for silver could he get away”.^[11][12][2] The Cid also uses it for “to end up, come out as”: mal escapan jogados “they come out badly mocked”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish it could also be transitive, “to save from” and “to avoid”, and Alfonso X used it of a stone that keeps its wearer from an illness and of a cord slipping out of the hand.^[13][14] The transitive “to save” occurs now and then in the classical period.^[2] Autoridades added the sense “to leave in haste, usually unseen”.^[7] The Academy recorded escapársele a uno una cosa “to fail to notice something; to let slip a word” by 1817, and the sense of driving a horse at full speed in 1884.^[15][8] The modern pronominal uses, of a gas leaking, a stitch coming undone, a bus leaving before one gets on, are listed in the DLE.^[5]

In the Canaries escapar means “to get by, live on very little”, recorded in Fuerteventura from 1787.^[16][17] In Cuba it means “to profit from a situation”.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid: non podrié escapar.^[11][3]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes: escape from prison.^[11]
• 1277 – Alfonso X's Libro del astrolabio uses it of a knot slipping from the hand.^[14]
• 1494 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[19]
• 1513 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin evado and elabor.^[20]
• 1599 – the derivative escapatoria in Mateo Alemán.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains it by the cloak left in the pursuer's hands.^[6]
• 1626 – the noun escape in Céspedes.^[2][3]
• 1787 – the Canarian sense “to subsist” in the records of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense of making a horse gallop.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also pronominal) to escape: to get out of confinement or a danger: Se escaparon del incendio por la azotea.^[5][1]
2. (intransitive, also pronominal) to flee, run away, slip away.^[5][1]
3. (transitive) to make a horse run with great violence.^[5]
4. (transitive, also pronominal) to save, rescue someone from a danger or trouble.^[5]
5. (pronominal) of a liquid or gas: to leak out of a tank, pipe or channel.^[5]
6. (pronominal) of something fastened: to come loose, as a stitch.^[5]
7. (pronominal) of a bus, train and the like: to leave before one can get on: Se nos fue escapando el último autobús.^[5]
8. (pronominal, also intransitive) to lie beyond someone's reach, power or influence.^[5]
9. (pronominal) to pass unnoticed: Se le escapó un detalle.^[5]
10. (pronominal) to say or do something involuntarily: Se le escapó un suspiro.^[5]
11. (sports, pronominal) of a racer: to break away from the group.^[5]
12. (Canary Islands) to get by, manage on very little.^[17][1]

Word family

• escape
• escapatoria
• escapamiento
• escapada

Related words

• capa
• Latin cappa
• French échapper
• Italian scappare

Usage notes

The thing escaped from takes de (escapar de la cárcel); with a it means to elude something (escapar a la justicia), and escapar a is also “to be beyond”: escapa a mis conocimientos.^[21][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 674
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. escapar
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2952
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. escapar
6. ^ 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. 761
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 554
8. ^ 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. 446
9. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 694
10. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. escapar
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. escapar
12. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 239
13. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 230
14. ^ 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. escapar
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 377
16. ^ a b 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. escapar
17. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. escapar
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. escapar
19. ^ 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. escapar
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 348
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. escapar