gastar

Forms

gastar (first-person singular present gasto, first-person singular preterite gasté, past participle gastado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vastāre (“to lay waste, devastate”), pronounced *wastare in late Latin under the influence of a West Germanic verb, the source of Old High German wuostan and German wüsten (“to lay waste”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary names the Germanic verb as Frankish *wōstijan.^[1] The Germanic /w/ was strengthened to /gw/, as in guerra and guardar, and in this verb /gw/ was then reduced to /g/ in the unstressed first syllable, as in galardón.^[5][2][1]

The same verb is Portuguese gastar, Catalan gastar, French gâter and Italian guastare.^[6][7] Gamillscheg seems to have taken the Spanish verb for a Gallicism, since the Germanic verb is attested only in West Germanic and so would be Frankish rather than Gothic.^[2] Corominas rejects this: the Italian verb shows that the Germanic influence acted on Vulgar Latin, medieval Catalan has the native guastar, and the form with /w/ in the Mozarabic of the Cordoban poet Ibn Quzman proves the word native in the south of Spain.^[2][8]

The Latin verb is formed from vāstus (“empty, desolate”).^[9] De Vaan traces it to Proto-Italic *wāsto- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁u(e)h₂-sto-, with the cognates Old Irish fás (“empty”) and Proto-Germanic *wōsti- (“empty, barren”).^[10] The learned devastar and vasto come from the same Latin words.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Aragonese Liber Regum, of the first years of the 13th century, uses the verb in its old sense “to lay waste”: „passoron mar e uinieron gastando por tierra de Roma” “they crossed the sea and came laying waste the land of Rome”.^[2][11] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) has the sense “to consume”: „Agora gastara aquella gent nuestra tierra cumo gasta el buey la yerba del campo” “now that people will eat up our land as the ox eats up the grass of the field”.^[11] Earlier still, in the first half of the 12th century, Ibn Quzman uses a Mozarabic participle of the verb for “squandered”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The noun gasto and gastador already have the modern sense of spending in Berceo, and the verb has it in the glossaries of Toledo and the Escorial of about 1400.^[2][3] The older and wider senses remained: Nebrija glosses gastar e destruir, and in the Quijote the verb often means “to waste, spoil”, as of time or of a woman's complexion.^[2] For Corominas this makes it unlikely that the same use in Juan de Valdés is an Italianism.^[2]

Covarrubias in 1611 explains the military gastadores as the sappers who dig trenches and haul stone and fascines, and lists phrases such as wasting time in vain.^[12] In 1817 the Academy still gave “to lay waste a province”, “to digest” and “to spoil”; in 1884 it added “to have habitually” (a mood), “to own, use, wear” (a car, glasses, a beard) and gastarlas “to behave”.^[13][14] The DLE now marks “to lay waste” and “to digest” as obsolete.^[4]

In Argentina gastar is to tease or make fun of someone, and in Colombia and Paraguay to treat someone to food or drink.^[15] In Judeo-Spanish gastarse is also said of meat and fish that go bad.^[16]

Timeline

• 1100–1150 – Ibn Quzman uses a Mozarabic participle of the verb for “squandered”.^[2]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum (in an early 13th-century copy) uses gastando for “laying waste”.^[11][2]
• 1220–1250 – gasto and gastador in Berceo.^[2][3]
• 1254 – the Judizios de las estrellas uses it for spending what one has.^[17]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses it for laying waste a city.^[17]
• c. 1400 – the glossaries of Toledo and the Escorial have it for spending money.^[2][3]
• 1517 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the military gastadores.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds “to have habitually” and “to wear, use”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To spend money on something: Este mes hemos gastado demasiado en luz.^[4][1]
2. To wear out, wear down by use; also reflexive: Con tanto uso se gastó el tapizado del sillón.^[4][1]
3. To consume, use up: Esta estufa gasta poca leña.^[4][19]
4. To have habitually, especially a bad mood or temper.^[4][20]
5. To own, use or wear habitually: Gasta barba desde muy joven.^[4][20][1]
6. (obsolete) To lay waste a territory.^[4]
7. (obsolete) To digest food.^[4]
8. (Argentina) To tease, make fun of someone.^[15]
9. (Colombia, Paraguay) To treat someone, paying for food or drink.^[15]

Word family

• gasto
• gastador
• gastable
• gastamiento
• desgastar
• desgaste
• malgastar
• gastárselas

Related words

• devastar
• vasto
• Latin vastō
• Italian guastare
• French gâter

Usage notes

Gastarlas or gastárselas (colloquial) is “to behave, carry on”, mostly of someone's bad ways.^[4][14] Gastar la pólvora en salvas is to waste effort on trifles.^[21][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 121
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gastar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. gastar
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. gastar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. vastare
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. gâter
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 413
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. vasto
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. gastar
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 899
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 439
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 526
15. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. gastar
16. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. gastar
17. ^ 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. gastar
18. ^ 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. castar
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gastar
20. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. gastar
21. ^ 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, p. 2, 215