harto

Forms

harto (feminine harta, masculine plural hartos, feminine plural hartas, superlative hartísimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish farto, inherited from Latin fartus (“stuffed”), the past participle of farciō (“to stuff, cram”).^[2][3][4][1] The Old Spanish form keeps the Latin ⟨f-⟩, which later became ⟨h-⟩.^[2][1]

Only the Ibero-Romance languages kept the participle: Portuguese farto, Galician farto, Asturian fartu and Catalan fart.^[2][5][1] The verb itself survives in Catalan and Gallo-Romance, as in French farcir.^[2][6]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *farkjō.^[7][1] Wiktionary connects it with Proto-Indo-European *bʰrekʷ- (“to stuff”) and Ancient Greek φράσσω (phrássō, “to fence in”); de Vaan gives the Greek verb only with a question mark.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded as farto in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140).^[2][3] An astrological treatise translated for Alfonso X (1254) says that a man born under Gemini es farto & abastado “is sated and well provided”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word has been frequent at every period.^[2] From “full of food” it passed to “having plenty” and “much, enough”: Covarrubias in 1611 gives both “content and satisfied with food” and “much”, as in harto honrado “very honourable”.^[9] The adverbial use is recorded at least from the 16th century; a feminine form in the second Lazarillo (1555), con harta poca resistencia “with very little resistance”, has parallels in the Americas today.^[2] Autoridades (1734) cites Saint Teresa's hartas veces “many times”.^[10]

The sense “fed up, tired (of)”, which Wiktionary compares with English fed up, now comes first in the DLE.^[1][4] The use for “much, many” and “very” has grown archaic in much of Spain but remains popular in Chile and other parts of the Americas; the DLE marks it as formal, but general in Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador, and adds adverbial senses (“a lot, often, for a long time”) of Bolivia, Chile and Mexico.^[2][4][11]

The old dictionaries record proverbs such as Bien canta Marta después de harta “Martha sings well once she is full”, of the good humour that comfort brings.^[12][13]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – farto in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][3]
• 1254 – an astrological treatise of Alfonso X's court uses farto “sated”.^[8]
• 1510 – the first record from the Americas, in Puebla.^[14]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin saturus and fartus.^[15]
• 1555 – the second Lazarillo has harta poca resistencia.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the sense “much”.^[9]
• 1734 – Autoridades gives the adjective “enough, much” and the adverb.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. fed up, tired (of): Estoy harta de esperar el autobús.^[4][1]
2. Full, sated: having eaten or drunk one's fill.^[4][16][1]
3. (formal; general in Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador) Much, many, plenty of: Tuvo hartos problemas con el coche.^[4][11]

Adverb

1. (formal; general in Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador) very, quite: Es un asunto harto delicado.^[4][17]
2. (Bolivia, Chile, Mexico) A lot, hard; often; for a long time: Trabajó harto esta semana.^[4]

Word family

• hartar
• hartura
• hartazgo

Related words

• farsa
• farsante
• infarto
• Portuguese farto

Usage notes

Harto also serves as the irregular past participle of hartar beside regular hartado.^[10][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 323
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. harto
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. harto
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. fartus
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. farce
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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. harto
9. ^ 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. 963
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 129
11. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. harto
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 461
13. ^ 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, 266
14. ^ 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. harto
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 360
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. harto
17. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. harto
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 556