espantar

Forms

espantar (first-person singular present espanto, first-person singular preterite espanté, past participle espantado)^[1] Old Spanish also had espaventar, still found in Galician and Asturian, and despantar.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *expaventāre (“to frighten”), formed from expavēns, the present participle of expaveō (“to be terrified”), itself from ex- and paveō (“to be frightened”).^[5][6][7][1] Corominas explains the form without /v/ of the three Ibero-Romance languages, also found in parts of France and southern Italy, by a dissimilated *expaentāre of Latin date, attested in old Italian texts as spaentare; he compares the loss of /v/ in pavor > paor and paura.^[5] He rejects a base *expavitare proposed for some Occitan and Walloon forms.^[5]

The same verb is Portuguese espantar, Galician espantar, Catalan espantar and Occitan espantar, while the forms with /v/ are Italian spaventare and French épouvanter.^[8][1] The Romanian verb is înspăimânta, with another change of the consonants.^[8][1]

The Latin verb goes back to *pawē- (“to be frightened”); de Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Indo-European verb “to fear” and compares Celtic words for fear.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) says of the Cid with his long beard los unos le han miedo e los otros espanta “some fear him, and others he frightens”.^[10][5][6] The first sense is “to frighten”; the reflexive “to take fright” appears in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200).^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the senses “to drive away”, as in the Partidas, where wolves are to be scared off by the barking of dogs and the shepherd's staff, and “to marvel”, as in the Lapidario, where the eye is dazzled by a gem's brilliance.^[11][3] Autoridades records espantar el sueño “to keep sleep away”, and the Academy's 1843 dictionary the saying espantóse la muerta de la degollada, for someone who finds fault in others while having worse faults himself; the Quijote already has it.^[3][12][13]

In Mexico espantar is said of a house or place that is haunted, and in Honduras of a ghost that appears to someone.^[14][15] In Cuba the reflexive also means “to eat or drink something up”, and in Bolivia “to leave a place in a hurry”.^[15] In León it is used for ringing the church bells to drive a storm away.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[5][6][10]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has the reflexive espantarse.^[10][17]
• 1220–1250 – the nouns espanto and espantada are first recorded.^[6]
• 1250–1279 – the Lapidario uses the verb for the eye dazzled by a gem.^[11]
• c. 1330 – the adjective espantoso is first recorded.^[6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin terreo as its equivalent.^[18] The nouns espantajo and espantadizo are first recorded.^[6]
• 1527 – first record from the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias offers several guesses at its origin.^[20]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary records espantóse la muerta de la degollada.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin expavens.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. To frighten, scare; also intransitive and reflexive: Los truenos espantaron a los caballos.^[7][1]
2. To drive away, scare off (people or animals): Espantaba las gallinas con una escoba.^[7][1]
3. To amaze; mostly reflexive, to marvel.^[7]
4. (reflexive) To take fright.^[22][23]
5. (Mexico) Of a place, to be haunted.^[15][14] (Honduras) Of a ghost, to appear to someone.^[15]
6. (Cuba, colloquial, reflexive) To eat or drink something up.^[15]

Word family

• espantable
• espantada
• espantadizo
• espantajo
• espanto
• espantoso
• espantapájaros
• espantasuegras
• espantaviejas

Related words

• aspaviento
• pavor
• Latin expaveō
• Portuguese espantar

Usage notes

Espantar el sueño means to keep oneself awake, and quien canta, sus males espanta “he who sings frightens away his sorrows” is quoted in the Quijote.^[3][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
4. ^ 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. 236
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 734
6. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espantar
7. ^ a b c d 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. espantar
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. espantar
11. ^ 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. espantar
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 317
13. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés
14. ^ a b García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. espantar
15. ^ a b c d e Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. espantar
16. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. espantar
17. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. espantar
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 349
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. espantar
20. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 787
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 457
22. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. espantar
23. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. espantar