guiar

Forms

guiar (first-person singular present guío, first-person singular preterite guie, past participle guiado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish guiar, a verb common to all the western Romance languages.^[2][3] Its initial /ɡ/ points to a Germanic source, but no clear etymon is known in the recorded Germanic vocabulary.^[2][3] Corominas suggests, following Bruckner, borrowed from Gothic *widan (“to join, go together”), from which “to accompany, escort” would have developed, since in feudal and customary law the verb meant to escort someone and guarantee his safety.^[2][3] He compares 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌽 (gawidan, “to join”) and Middle High German weten (“to yoke, join”), and admits that too many steps of this etymology remain hypothetical for it to be certain.^[2] The DLE gives the same Gothic verb as a possible source.^[4]

Corominas rejects two older proposals: Diez's 𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (witan, “to observe, watch”), which he finds semantically vague and phonetically impossible for a Gothic word, and a Frankish *wītan (“to show a direction”) put forward by Mackel and adopted by Gamillscheg, a meaning he considers invented by 19th-century Germanists.^[2] Wiktionary nevertheless derives the verb from Old Occitan guidar, from that Frankish verb and Proto-Germanic *wītaną (“to see, know”), perhaps through Medieval Latin.^[1] Bénaben also starts from the Frankish verb, and Gómez de Silva traces it to Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”).^[5][6][1] García de Diego derives the verb from the noun guía, which the BDELC instead treats as derived from the verb.^[7][3]

The same verb is Portuguese guiar, Catalan guiar, guizar, Old French guier (later French guider) and Italian guidare, all as old as their languages and in popular use.^[2][8] Corominas argues that the Romance forms point unanimously to a base Vulgar Latin *widare with /d/.^[2] The /d/ kept in the Occitan form with ⟨d⟩ and in the 14th-century French verb is in his view a Latinism, due to the Medieval Latin guidare of legal Latin, where safe-conduct played a large part.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has it of God: ¡A ti lo gradesco, Dios, que cielo e tierra guías! “To you I give thanks, God, who rule heaven and earth!”, where Menéndez Pidal glosses it “to direct, govern”.^[9][10] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) uses it for God leading Abraham from his father's house.^[9][11]

Semantic evolution

Berceo used it for a shepherd guiding his sheep and for the Virgin guiding human life.^[9][12] Alfonso X's prose already has the main modern senses: to lead the way, to steer a ship, to direct someone in an affair, and the pronominal “to let oneself be led” by one's will or by signs.^[13] In medieval law, Castilian and Catalan alike, it meant to escort a traveller and answer for his safety, the institution called guiaje.^[2]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) took the verb as formed from the noun guía and added the senses “to teach, direct” and “to set an example”, with the phrase guiar la danza “to be the one who leads”.^[14] The Academy's edition of 1899 added the senses of guiding a machine part, training plants and driving a carriage.^[15] In the Dominican Republic guiar is the everyday verb for driving a car.^[16] In León, guiar el agua is said of a farmer leading irrigation water from furrow to furrow.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid calls God the one who guía heaven and earth.^[9][10]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy).^[9][11]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán has the saint guiando his sheep.^[9]
• 1254 – the Fuero Juzgo has the pronominal guiarse por “to be led by”.^[13]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it for steering a ship.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin duco and perduco as its equivalents.^[18]
• 1520 – first record from the Americas, in a letter from Cuba.^[19]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as “to show the way”.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives an etymology, from Germanic vitan.^[20]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the senses for machines, plants and carriages.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go ahead showing the way; to guide, lead: Un pastor nos guió hasta el refugio.^[4][1]
2. To make a part of a machine or device follow a fixed path in its movement.^[4]
3. (horticulture) To direct the growth of plants by training their shoots (guías).^[4][1]
4. To drive or steer a vehicle; in the Dominican Republic, to drive a car.^[4][16][1]
5. To direct or advise someone in an affair: Su maestra la guió en sus primeros años.^[4][1]
6. (pronominal, guiarse) To let oneself be directed by someone, or by signs and indications: Nos guiamos por el mapa.^[4]

Word family

• guiador
• guión
• guía
• guiado

Related words

• guiaje
• guiamiento

Usage notes

The verb has two pronunciations, /ˈɡjaɾ/ with a diphthong and /ɡiˈaɾ/ in hiatus; the stressed forms of the present are written with an accent (guío), while the preterite guie has none.^[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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 258
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guiar
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. guiar
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. guiar
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 340
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. guiar
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1748
9. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. guiar
10. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 305
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. guiar
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 400
13. ^ a b c 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. guiar
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 95
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 509
16. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. guiar
17. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. guiar
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 357
19. ^ 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. guiar
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 547