esleír

Forms

esleír (first-person singular present eslío, first-person singular preterite esleí, past participle esleído)^[1] Old Spanish forms include esleer, esleyer, esleir, esleyr and eslier, with the participle esleído or esliido.^[2][3][4] Navarrese has eslegir.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish esleer, and according to Wiktionary it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *exligere, a form of Latin eligo (“to pick out, choose”) with the full prefix ex- restored.^[1][5] Corominas agrees that the Old Spanish verb shows the popular sound changes, but since it always means “to choose for an office”, he takes it as a semi-popular adaptation of the Latin verb rather than a true inherited word.^[4] DICCA-XV follows him.^[6] Later Latin influence replaced it with the learned elegir, its doublet.^[4][7][1]

The same Vulgar Latin verb is Italian scegliere and Old French eslire, modern French élire.^[5][8][1] The Old Galician-Portuguese form is esleer.^[1]

The Latin verb is formed from the prefix and lego (“to gather, choose”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The manuscript of the Fazienda de Ultramar (c. 1211–1235) already has esleer.^[10] Corominas's first record is the participle esliido in the Libro de Alexandre; the verb meant choosing someone for an office.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Esleer was frequent from the 13th century, in the Fuero Juzgo, to about 1400, when the Rimado de Palacio still has it;^[11][12] elegir appears with Santillana, in the second quarter of the 15th century, and took its place.^[4][7] Covarrubias in 1611 noted esleir only as a word used by Don Juan Manuel in the Conde Lucanor.^[11][12] The Diccionario de Autoridades called it antiquated, and the Academy has labelled it so ever since; the DLE marks it as no longer in use.^[13][14][15]

Timeline

• c. 1211–1235 – the manuscript of the Fazienda de Ultramar has esleer.^[10]
• 13th century – the Libro de Alexandre has esliido, esleído and esleyeron.^[4]
• 1335 – Don Juan Manuel uses esleir in the Conde Lucanor.^[12]
• c. 1400 – the Rimado de Palacio, one of the last records of esleer.^[4]
• second quarter of the 15th century – elegir replaces it.^[7]
• 1611 – Covarrubias cites the word from the Conde Lucanor.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it antiquated.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete) To choose or elect; the same as elegir.^[15][16][1]

Related words

• elegir
• electo
• Latin eligo
• French élire

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. esleir
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. eligere
4. ^ 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. 2, 551
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. *exligere
6. ^ 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. esleír
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. elegir
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. élire
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ēligō
10. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. esleer
11. ^ 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. 782
12. ^ 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. 235
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 584
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 455
15. ^ a b 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. esleír
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esleír