esperar

Forms

esperar (first-person singular present espero, first-person singular preterite esperé, past participle esperado)^[1] A variant asperar was widespread in Old and Golden Age Castilian, from the Libro de Alexandre to Cervantes de Salazar, and survives in popular speech in Aragon, Andalusia, Cantabria, Asturias, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico and in Judeo-Spanish.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish esperar, inherited from Latin spērō (“to hope”).^[2][4][5][1] The Glosas Silenses already have the Latin-looking subjunctive speret.^[2]

The same verb is Portuguese esperar, Galician esperar, Catalan esperar, Occitan esperar, French espérer and Italian sperare.^[6][3] Corominas notes that taking over the sense “to wait for” from Latin aspectō is an innovation of the three Hispanic Romance languages and some Occitan dialects.^[2] Nascentes says the same of Portuguese.^[2][7]

spērō is formed from spēs (“hope”).^[8][1] De Vaan derives spēs from Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- (“to prosper, succeed”), the root of *spéh₁s (“prosperity”).^[9][1]

For the variant asperar, mostly used for “to wait”, Corominas rejects a Latin *adsperō and an early cross with aspectō (Leite de Vasconcelos's view), and prefers the influence of aguardar within Castilian, as Cuervo did.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has both main senses: “to hope that something will happen” and, more often, “to wait” for a person or an event.^[10][2] In the poem the Cid rides off “a todos esperando”, waiting for all his men.^[11] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) has Moses tell the elders “Esperadme vos aqui”, “wait for me here”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used esperar for waiting as well as for hoping.^[12][2] Juan de Valdés, in his Diálogo de la lengua, wanted asperar for certain things and esperar for uncertain ones, as Italian has aspettare and sperare, but admitted that few kept the distinction.^[2] Nebrija and Alonso de Palencia used esperar for both.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 remarked that people say esperar la calentura “to expect the fever” even of things they fear.^[13] The Academy listed the proverb quien espera desespera in 1817.^[14] Its 1899 edition added the sense “to believe that something will happen”.^[15]

In Spain the subjunctive is preferred after esperar que “to hope that”, especially in negative clauses.^[2] Corominas notes that the future, usual in Argentina, was also Valdés's construction.^[2] In Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile esperar guagua means “to be expecting a baby”.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for waiting and hoping.^[10][2][4]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has the imperative esperadme.^[11]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes, the first record in the CDH without a later copy.^[11]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has the variant asperar.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's prose uses it for hoping, believing that something will happen and waiting.^[17]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses esperar algún bien with Latin spero.^[18]
• 1521 – first record from the Americas, in Cuba.^[19]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “to hope, to look, to stay”.^[20]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades separates hoping, trusting in someone and waiting.^[21]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin sperare.^[22]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To hope for, hope to achieve: Esperamos terminar la casa antes del invierno.^[5][1]
2. (transitive) To expect, believe that something will happen, especially something good.^[5][1]
3. (transitive) To wait for, stay where someone is expected to come or something to happen: Te espero en la parada del autobús.^[5][1]
4. (intransitive) To wait before acting until something happens.^[5][23]
5. (intransitive) Of a thing: to be imminent, lie ahead for someone.^[5][23]
6. (intransitive, with en) To put one's trust in someone.^[5][21]

Word family

• espera
• esperanza
• desesperar
• esperanzar
• desesperanza

Related words

• aguardar
• Latin spēs
• Portuguese esperar

Usage notes

Esperar sentado “to wait sitting down” is said of something that will happen very late or never.^[5] With que it takes the subjunctive in the sense “to hope” and may take the indicative in the sense “to expect”.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 740
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6261
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esperar
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. esperar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. esperar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 261
11. ^ 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. esperar
12. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 238
13. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 791
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 387
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 424
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. esperar
17. ^ 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. esperar
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 350
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. asperar
20. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 138
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 599
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 459
23. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esperar