herir

Forms

herir (first-person singular present hiero, first-person singular preterite herí, past participle herido)^[1] Old Spanish wrote ferir, the form of the charters of 1090 and 1129, of the Cantar de mio Cid and of Berceo.^[2] Nebrija already writes herir; the old form ferir survives in Judeo-Spanish and Aragonese.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ferīre (“to strike, hit”), first written ferir.^[2][5][6][1] The same Latin verb is Portuguese ferir, Galician ferir, Asturian firir, Aragonese ferir, Catalan ferir, Occitan ferir, Old French ferir, Italian ferire and Romanian feri.^[7][1][8][9] In the 15th century the ⟨h⟩ of the verb was still pronounced as an aspirate.^[2] The diphthong of ⟨hiero⟩ and the ⟨i⟩ of ⟨hirió⟩ were already noted as irregularities by the Academy's first dictionary.^[10]

The Latin verb goes back to *ferjō, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to pierce, strike”), whose o-grade is seen in forō (“to bore”).^[11][1] De Vaan points out that an e-grade *bʰerH-ie- should have given another Latin form, and suggests that the root lost its final laryngeal before a vowel and was then given the suffix *-ie/o- again.^[11] Wiktionary also cites a second proposal, a root *bʰer- (“to scrape, cut”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first records to charters of 1090 and 1129, in the spelling ferir; the Cantar de mio Cid follows.^[2][5] The earliest hit in the CDH with a contemporary witness is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250): Del estranno que al uezino firiere o matare “of the stranger who strikes or kills a resident”.^[12] The Fuero de Madrid, known from a copy of the first half of the 13th century, has the same sense: Todo homine qui firire a uicino “any man who strikes a resident”.^[12] The medieval verb meant “to strike, to give a blow (with something)”, as in Latin.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the verb mostly kept the Latin sense: Berceo has ferir colmelladas “to strike with the tusks”, and other texts have ferir palmas “to clap” and ferir pregones “to proclaim”.^[2] The Libro de Alexandre uses it for “to reach, fall on a place”, and absolutely for “to attack”.^[2] The prose of Alfonso X already shows the sun striking a surface, a sound striking the ear and a heart wounded by words.^[13] The striking sense lived on into the Golden Age: Ribadeneira's saint hiriendo a stone with his goad, a man in a fit hiriendo de pies y de manos.^[2][10]

The modern sense “to wound” may have grown out of the participle and of the noun ferida, which Berceo already uses for wounds.^[2] It is plain in Alfonso de Palencia's vocabulary of 1490, which glosses Latin vulnerare with llagar, ferir, matar.^[2][5] In 1611 Covarrubias defined herir as to strike and hurt, and listed herir de agudo “to thrust with the point” and the musicians' herir la cuerda.^[14] The Academy's dictionaries added the light of the sun, the senses of hearing and sight, and the feelings, and until the 19th century an old intransitive herir de pie y de mano “to shake in convulsions”.^[15][16] Baralt in 1855 called some of these figurative uses gallicisms.^[17]

The compound zaherir “to reproach”, Old Spanish facerir, joins faz “face” to the verb in its old sense: to throw something in someone's face.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1090 – ferir in a charter, the first record; another follows in 1129.^[2][5]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses ferir.^[2]
• 1218–c. 1250 – firiere “strikes” in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has the sun that fiere “strikes” a stone.^[13]
• 1490 – the sense “to wound” is recorded in Alfonso de Palencia's vocabulary.^[5][2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin ico, ferio and percutio for herir.^[3]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records herir de agudo and herir la cuerda.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin ferire.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wound or injure a person or animal, causing a cut or bruise: Un perro herido cojeaba junto a la carretera.^[6][1]
2. To break or damage a plant.^[6]
3. To strike against something, hit it.^[6][20]
4. Of arrows and other projectiles: to cut through the air with a quivering whirr.^[6]
5. (formal) To play a stringed instrument or press keys: El viejo hería las cuerdas de la guitarra.^[6][21]
6. (music, phonetics) To stress a note or syllable, or to sound one or more notes.^[6][21]
7. Of light, especially sunlight: to fall on someone or something.^[6][20]
8. Of an illness: to strike someone.^[6]
9. To affect one of the senses, especially hearing, often unpleasantly: Aquel chirrido le hería los oídos.^[6][21]
10. To stir a painful feeling, hurt someone's feelings, offend, especially with words or writing.^[6][1]
11. To touch the essential point of a question.^[6][20]

Word family

• herida
• herido
• hiriente
• herimiento
• zaherir

Related words

• horadar
• perforar
• Latin feriō
• Portuguese ferir
• English interfere

Usage notes

Herir is conjugated like sentir: hiero, hieres, but herimos, and hirió, hiriera.^[10][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 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, 346
3. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 362
4. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. ferir
5. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. herir
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. herir
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. ferire
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1546
9. ^ 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. 3, 974
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, 142
11. ^ 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
12. ^ 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. herir
13. ^ 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. herir
14. ^ 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. 971
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 465
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 384
17. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 357
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. ferir
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 561
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. herir
21. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. herir