garante

Forms

garante m or f by sense (plural garantes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French garant (“guarantor”), a word as old as French itself, found already in the Chanson de Roland.^[2][3][4][1] Its source is Germanic, probably from Frankish *werênd, the present participle of a verb “to guarantee”, as in Old High German werênt;^[2][4][1] The verb German gewähren (“to grant”) is related.^[2][4][1] This is the view of Diez and Gamillscheg, which Corominas defends; the DLE gives it with a “perhaps”.^[2][4]

Meyer-Lübke started instead from a verb *warjan “to affirm, prove”, to explain Occitan guiren beside the French form;^[2] Corominas rejects it on grounds of meaning and form.^[2] The DHLF follows that view, explaining the French word as the participle of an old verb from that Frankish verb, meaning “to declare true”, and Wiktionary gives a Frankish *warand.^[5][1] Corominas thinks the ⟨a⟩ of the first syllable may come from association with Old French garir (“to protect”).^[2] García de Diego also starts from that form.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Covarrubias, in the supplement to his Tesoro written about 1611, describes an emblem of Venus with little Cupid como garante de la esposa prometida por ella “as guarantor of the bride she had promised”.^[7] An earlier hit, estar garante in Martín de Santander's Comedia Rosabella of 1550, is isolated.^[7] Corominas and the BDELC date the word from Autoridades (1734), which defines it as the prince who stands surety for what is promised in peace treaties, adding that anyone who stands surety is now commonly called so, and that it is a French word lately introduced.^[2][3][8]

Semantic evolution

The word spread as a term of diplomacy in the 18th century: in 1705 Raimundo de Lantery writes of powers acting como garantes of a partition, and in 1748 Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa of nations that are garantes of one another in the peace treaties.^[7] Terreros, at the end of the century, says that garante and garantir are by then common in Castile.^[9] Until 1869 the Academy gave the treaty sense first and “guarantor” second; in 1884 it put the general sense first.^{[10][11][12][13]} Today it is an adjective, also used as a noun, for any person or thing that gives a guarantee.^[4][14] In Spanish America it is recorded from 1791 in Lima.^[15]

English guarantee, first “a person who gives security” in the 1670s, may have been altered from earlier garrant under the influence of Spanish garante.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1611 – Covarrubias's Suplemento calls Cupid the garante of a promised bride.^[7]
• 1705 – garantes of a partition in Lantery's Memorias.^[7]
• 1734 – Autoridades: the prince who guarantees a peace treaty, a French word lately introduced.^[8][3]
• 1734 – the derivative garantía in the same dictionary.^[3]
• 1791 – first records from the Americas, in Lima.^[15]
• 1884 – the general sense “guarantor” first in the Academy's dictionary.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That gives a guarantee (garantía); also as a noun, a guarantor, a person or body that answers for something or someone: Su tío salió garante del préstamo.^[4][14][1]

Noun

1. (historical) A sovereign or power that guarantees the observance of a treaty (tratado).^[8][11]

Word family

• garantía
• garantir
• garantizar

Related words

• fiador
• French garant
• English guarantee

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 81
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. garante
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. garante
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7307
7. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. garante
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 22
9. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
15. ^ 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
16. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com