esparcir

Forms

esparcir (first-person singular present esparzo, first-person singular preterite esparcí, past participle esparcido)^[1] Old Spanish wrote esparzir and esparzer with a voiced z.^[2][3] Berceo has esbarcir.^[4][2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spargō (“to scatter, strew”).^[4][5][6][1] Old Spanish had esparzer beside esparzir, with a voiced /dz/, which also explains the Asturian form.^[4] Berceo's esbarcir with a voiceless consonant is odd, and the verse lacks a syllable.^[4][3] Nebrija also records espanzirse (“to spread, of ink on paper”), a cross between the verb and the old verb espandir, from expandō.^[4] Old Aragonese espraír (Fueros de Aragón, c. 1300) shows a metathesis.^[4]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese espargir, Galician esparexer, Asturian esparder, Catalan espargir, Old French espardre, Italian spargere and Romanian sparge.^[3][7][4] Portuguese earlier had esparger, and Galician inserted a vowel.^[4]

The origin of the Latin verb is disputed.^[1][8] It is often derived from *(s)pregʰ-, with Sanskrit, Greek and Germanic verbs for crackling and roaring.^[1] De Vaan rejects this, because the meaning does not fit and the Latin vowel could not come from such a form; following Schrijver, he prefers an extension in /g/ of *sper- (“to strew”), the root of Ancient Greek σπείρω (speírō, “to sow, strew”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in the Liber regum (c. 1194–1211, in a copy of the first quarter of the 13th century): after Domitian drove out the Jews, Estonz se esparzieron por las tierras del mundo “then they scattered over the lands of the world”.^[9] Corominas's first record is Berceo's esbarcir, and the Breve diccionario dates the verb 1220–1250.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already uses the verb for scattering things and people, for spreading news, and for squandering money.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as throwing things on the ground or over something else, such as flowers, coins for the crowd or water.^[10] Autoridades added the spreading of news and the reflexive sense “to amuse oneself”, and noted a less common variant desparcir.^[11] That reflexive sense, “to relax, take one's ease”, is still in the modern dictionary, and the noun esparcimiento (1570) now means “recreation”.^[6][5] Desparcir was common in the early chronicles of the Americas.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1194–1211 – se esparzieron in the Liber regum (in an early 13th-century copy).^[9]
• c. 1200 – esparzerlos he in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy).^[9]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo's esbarcir.^[4][5]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios use it for squandering wealth.^[2]
• c. 1300 – Aragonese espraír in the Fueros de Aragón.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives esparzir for Latin spargo and fundo.^[13]
• 1541 – first record from the Americas, in Michoacán.^[12]
• 1570 – first record of esparcimiento.^[5]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin spargĕre.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To scatter or spread out what was together or piled up: El viento esparció las hojas por el patio.^[6][1]
2. (transitive, also pronominal) To spread or make known a piece of news: El rumor se esparció en pocas horas.^[6][1]
3. (mostly pronominal) To divert or relax; to take one's ease.^[6][1]

Word family

• esparcimiento
• esparcidor

Related words

• desparcir
• desparramar
• asperjar
• disperso
• dispersar
• Latin spargo
• Portuguese espargir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. esparcir
3. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 737
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esparcir
6. ^ a b c d e 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. esparcir
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6245
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. esparcir
10. ^ 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. 788
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 593
12. ^ a b 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. desparcir
13. ^ 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. esparcir
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. 457