ficar

Forms

ficar (first-person singular present fico, first-person singular preterite fiqué, past participle ficado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ficar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *figicāre, a frequentative of Latin fīgere (“to drive in, fix”).^[2][3][1] It is the form without /n/ of the same verb as fincar, today hincar.^[2][1] Corominas notes that the Vulgar Latin verb must have been reduced to *ficcare already in Imperial times, by early syncope, since the two consonants were alike.^[2][1]

This form is the Castilian variant found in the oldest texts, in the Cid and in Berceo, but mostly in Leonese and Aragonese texts.^[2] This agrees with the other Romance languages, which know only forms without /n/: Portuguese ficar, Catalan ficar, Occitan ficar, French ficher and Italian ficcare.^[2][4] Most of the Castilian examples of the form without /n/ mean “to stay”, as in Portuguese, while the form with /n/ tends to mean “to drive in”.^[2]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stick, set up”), with Lithuanian diegti (“to plant, sting”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in the Glosas Silenses, of the second half of the 10th century, followed by a Riojan charter of 1044.^[2][6] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has ficar “to stay behind”: los que con mio Cid ficarán en la çaga “those who will stay in the rearguard with my Cid”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Corominas knows no Castilian ficar meaning “to drive in”.^[2] Alfonso X's Lapidario says that after wars and other misfortunes the sciences ficaron “remained” as if lost.^[9] The DLE labels it disused.^[3][10]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – the Glosas Silenses, the first record.^[2][6]
• 1044 – a Riojan charter.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses ficar beside fincar.^[2][8]
• 1255 – the Fuero real uses the verb.^[11]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's slang vocabulary records ficar “to gamble”.^[12][13]
• 1846 – Salvá adds the old sense, the same as fincar.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To stay, remain in a place (quedar).^[3][1][10]

Related words

• fincar
• hincar
• fijar
• Latin fīgō
• Portuguese ficar

Usage notes

In the slang of the underworld (germanía), ficar meant “to gamble”: Juan Hidalgo's vocabulary of 1609 records it, and Autoridades and the Academy's dictionaries to 1899 give only this sense.^[12][13][15] The sources give no origin for it.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 3, 363
3. ^ a b c 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. ficar
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. *figicāre
5. ^ 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. fīgō
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hincar
7. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ficar
8. ^ 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. 258
9. ^ 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. fincar
10. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ficar
11. ^ 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. ficar
12. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. s.v. ficar
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 744
14. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 516
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 458