esposar

Forms

esposar (first-person singular present esposo, first-person singular preterite esposé, past participle esposado)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish esposas (“handcuffs”) + -ar.^[1][2] The noun is the plural of esposa (“wife; bride”), the feminine of esposo: the prisoner's manacles were called so by a metaphor for their inseparable union, in a use Corominas dates to 1335 and finds in Juan Ruiz, Alfonso de Palencia and Nebrija.^[2][3]

esposo and esposa continue Latin spōnsus (“betrothed”) and spōnsa, the past participle of spondeō (“to pledge, promise”).^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb to 1604, two and a half centuries after the noun esposas “handcuffs”, which he records from 1335.^[2] Domínguez in 1846 gives both “to put on handcuffs” and, as an old word, “to betroth”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Alemany's dictionary of 1917 and the DLE today have only the sense “to handcuff”.^[6][7] Moliner and Vox define it the same way.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 1335 – first record of esposas for a prisoner's manacles.^[2]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's dictionary has esposas in that sense.^[3]
• 1604 – first record of the verb esposar.^[2][10]
• 1846 – Domínguez records “to put on handcuffs” beside the old sense “to betroth”.^[5]
• 1917 – Alemany defines it only as “to put on handcuffs”.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To handcuff, to put esposas on someone: Los agentes lo esposaron antes de subirlo al coche.^[7][1][8]

Related words

• esposo
• esposa
• desposar
• esponsales

Usage notes

Old Spanish had a different verb esposar (often reflexive esposarse) “to betroth, to marry”, which continues Latin sponsare; the DEMel finds it from the Fuero de Avilés (c. 1155), and the Academy now uses desposar for it.^{[11][12][13][5]}

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esposo
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 752
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. spondeō
5. ^ a b c Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 753
6. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 717
7. ^ 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. esposar
8. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. esposar
9. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. esposar
10. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 729
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 6284
12. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. esposar
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. esposar