fuera

Etymology

It continues inherited from Old Spanish fueras, inherited from Latin forās (“out of doors, outside”).^[2][3][1] The final ⟨-s⟩ was dropped on the model of the many adverbs that had forms with and without the so-called adverbial ⟨-s⟩, such as ante beside antes and entonce beside entonces.^[2] The form fuera spread from the 13th century, and Portuguese fora, Catalan fora and Occitan fòra lost the ⟨-s⟩ in the same way.^[2]

In Late and Vulgar Latin, this adverb and forīs almost entirely replaced extrā.^[2] The first prevails in Romanian, Sardinian, Italian and Spanish, the second in French and Romansh.^[2] The same word is Galician fóra, Asturian fuera, Italian fuori, Romanian afară and French hors.^[4][5][1]

In Latin the two adverbs are the accusative and locative plural of a noun forā-, meaning literally “to the door” and “at the door”, from *fwor-, from a Proto-Indo-European root noun for “door”, Proto-Indo-European *dʰwer-.^[6][7] The Latin plural forēs (“door”) belongs to the same root, as do Ancient Greek θύρα (thúra, “door”) and the English word door.^[2][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Emilianenses, of about 950, have the old form fueras.^[2][3] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) uses fuera for “outside” when the Cid sees the Moors come out of Alcocer: „Mio Cid, cuando los vio fuera, cogiós' commo de arrancada” “when my Cid saw them outside, he set off as if in flight”.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant both “outside” (place) and, before a noun, “except”: Alfonso X's laws say that nobody may consecrate it fueras obispo “except a bishop”.^[9][2] Berceo uses fuera que for “after”, and the classical language fuera de que for “besides the fact that”.^[2] Autoridades records the sense “besides” in fuera de and the interjection telling someone to move away.^[10]

The Academy's 1869 dictionary describes ¡fuera! used to make someone take off a garment (fuera la capa) or leave, and in 1884 it adds its use in theatres to show disapproval.^[11][12] In sport the word now names a ball or player that is out; in Puerto Rico it is the baseball “out”, a sense taken from English.^[1][13] Covarrubias quotes the old ballad line „Afuera, afuera, Rodrigo” and notes that fuera is also a form of the verb ser.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 950 – the Glosas Emilianenses have fueras.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses both fueras and fuera.^[2][8]
• 1182 – fueras in a dated fragment without a later copy, the CDH's earliest such record.^[8]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has faza fuera “outwards”.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin foras and foris for fuera with and without motion.^[15]
• 1514 – the first record in the Americas, from Darién.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives fuera from Latin foras or foris.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. foras” and the theatre use of ¡fuera!.^[12]

Meanings

Adverb

1. outside, out: in or to the outer part of a place or thing: Los niños juegan fuera.^[17][1]
2. Away from home, in another town or country: Mi hermano trabaja fuera.^[18][19]
3. (with de) Outside of, beyond; except, apart from: fuera de la ciudad, fuera de esto.^[18][10]
4. (sports) Out, out of play.^[1][19]

Interjection

1. Get out!, away!: used to drive someone away, and repeated to show disapproval of a speaker or performer.^[17][1]
2. Off with …!, used to call for something or someone to be removed: ¡Fuera chaquetas!^[17]

Word family

• afuera
• defuera
• fuera de juego
• fuera de serie
• fuera de sí

Related words

• foráneo
• forastero
• fuereño
• foro
• Latin forās
• Portuguese fora
• English door

Usage notes

De fuera means “from outside, from elsewhere”, and in Cuba de fuera a fuera describes a superficial relationship.^[17][20] The same spelling is the imperfect subjunctive of ser and ir (si yo fuera), an unrelated verb form.^[14][1]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 970
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fuera
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. foras
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ 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, p. s.v. foris
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. fuera
8. ^ 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. fuera
9. ^ 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. fuera
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 806
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 372
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 512
13. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. fuera
14. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 871
15. ^ 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. fuera
16. ^ 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. fuera
17. ^ 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. fuera
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fuera
19. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. fuera
20. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. fuera