henchir

Forms

henchir (first-person singular present hincho, first-person singular preterite henchí, past participle henchido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish enchir, inherited from Latin implēre (“to fill”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary goes through Vulgar Latin *implīre, with the change of conjugation that most Romance languages show.^[1] The Latin verb is formed in- + pleō (“to fill”).^[2][5]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese encher, Catalan omplir (western Catalan emplir), French emplir, Italian empiere and Romanian umple.^[2][6][7][1] Upper Aragonese has emplir.^[2] Coromines explains the Catalan vowel ⟨o⟩ by the rounding effect of the group ⟨mp⟩ and by the influence of complir.^[6]

The Latin verb had no ⟨f⟩.^[3] The Old Spanish spelling fenchir, common from the 13th century, shows an aspirated /h/ that came from confusion with hinchar, whose own ⟨h⟩ goes back to the ⟨f⟩ of inflāre.^[3][2][8] Corominas rejects a cross with farto proposed by Malkiel and García de Diego, and notes that the real Galician form is the same as the Portuguese one.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) has the form enchir, in the subjunctive ynchamos “let us fill”.^[2][3] Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for water filling cisterns: de que se ynchen aquellos algibes.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the verb for filling a space or container, figuratively for heaping favours or harm on someone, and for a river swelling with water.^[9] Berceo wavers between enchir and fenchir;^[1] fenchir is the usual form in the Libro de Apolonio, Juan Ruiz and Juan Manuel, and the spelling with h- is general from Palencia and Nebrija.^[2]

The many forms it shares with hinchar led to the rise of llenar as an unambiguous replacement, and henchir declined.^[2] Juan de Valdés already called it an ugly, coarse word that he used only because llenar did not fit everywhere, quoting the proverb De servidores leales se hinchen los ospitales.^[2][1] Covarrubias in 1611 lists many phrases: henchir la cabeza de viento “to puff someone up with flattery”, henchir las medidas “to satisfy someone fully”, henchir la silla “to deserve one's post”.^[10] Corominas notes that it is now dead in speech and survives in literary and figurative use.^[2] In rural Puerto Rico jenchir meant to fill a vessel with water.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has the subjunctive ynchamos.^[2][3]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo writes both enchir and fenchir.^[2]
• 1256 – Alfonso X's Picatrix has enchir, the first CDH hit in a contemporary manuscript.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives henchir o hinchir for Latin impleo.^[13][14]
• 1528 – first record in the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records its phrases.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin implere.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fill a space or container up to its limit, also figuratively;^[17][1] henchirse, to fill up: La brisa henchía la lona de la tienda.^[4][17][1]
2. To heap favours or other things on someone; colmar.^[4][17]
3. (rare) Of a person, to fill a post or office worthily.^[4][1]
4. (reflexive) To stuff oneself with food or drink.^[18][17]

Word family

• henchimiento
• henchidor
• henchidura
• rehenchir

Related words

• hinchar
• llenar
• Latin impleō
• Portuguese encher

Usage notes

It is conjugated like pedir: hincho, hinches, hinchió, hinchiendo.^[19][17] These forms coincide with those of hinchar, which is why the verb was avoided.^[2] Nebrija also gives the variant hinchir, which is still used in Salamanca.^[2][20]

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 m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 341
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. henchir
4. ^ 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. henchir
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b 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. 6, 62
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. emplir
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. henchir
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. henchir
10. ^ 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. 969
11. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. henchir
12. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. henchir
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 361
14. ^ 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. henchir
15. ^ 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. henchir
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 560
17. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. henchir
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. henchir
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 138
20. ^ 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. henchir