honrar

Forms

honrar (first-person singular present honro, first-person singular preterite honré, past participle honrado)^[1] The Cid writes ondrar;^[2][3] Berceo has onrar beside ondrar, and the spelling with ⟨rr⟩, onrrar, is general by the 14th century.^[2][3] DEMel's medieval forms include onrrar, honrar, ondrar and the rare ornen.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin honōrāre (“to honour”), first as inherited from Old Spanish ondrar and onrrar.^[2][5][1] The Latin verb is formed from honor (“honour”) with the verb ending -ō.^[6][1] De Vaan finds that the stem honōs can only go back to an Indo-European root beginning with a voiced aspirate, for which no further etymology is known.^[7]

The regular outcome would have been ornar, which occurs a few times in one manuscript of Berceo, but it was too far from honor to survive.^[2] The noun restored the order of the consonants in onrar, with a single tap /ɾ/, and the cluster then settled either with an inserted /d/ or with a trill, and the trilled form prevailed.^[2] A learned honorar is rare in Old Spanish; it survives as a doublet of the inherited verb.^[2][1]

The same Latin verb gives Portuguese honrar, Galician honrar and Catalan honrar, and in learned form Italian onorare and French honorer.^[8][3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already uses the verb for showing respect to someone: quanto él meior puede alli las ondró “he honoured them there as best he could”.^[10][11] It also appears in polite formulas, mucho me auedes ondrado “you have honoured me greatly”, and the participle describes a fine gift, una piel vermeja, morisca e ondrada “a red Moorish hide of honour”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The participle honrado meant “illustrious” and also “rich” in the Middle Ages; it later became “honest, upright”.^[2][12] Alfonso X's prose uses the verb for respecting someone, for conferring honour or fame and, reflexively, for distinguishing oneself.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as to revere and to treat with courtesy, and, of a superior towards an inferior, to receive kindly.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades added the senses “to favour” and “to ennoble, give distinction”, and the Academy's 1817 edition recorded the proverb yo a vos por honrar, vos a mí por encornudar, said of those who repay kindness with ingratitude.^[15][16]

The noun honra has been more popular than honor at every period;^[2] Juan de Valdés admitted honor only in verse.^[2] In Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Bolivia and Ecuador honrar also means to fulfil a contract or to settle a debt.^[17][18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has ondrar and the participle ondrada.^[10][11]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) says Moses was mucho ondrado in Egypt.^[11][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses onrar and onrrado.^[13]
• 1529 – first record from the Americas, in a letter written in Mexico.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines honrar as to revere and to treat with courtesy.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy records the proverb yo a vos por honrar, vos a mí por encornudar.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from honorar.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To respect or honour someone: Debemos honrar a nuestros mayores.^[5][21]
2. To exalt or reward someone's merit.^[5]
3. To bring honour or renown to someone: Tu sinceridad te honra.^[5][21]
4. In polite formulas, to grace an occasion with one's presence or support: Esta tarde nos honra con su visita la alcaldesa.^[5]
5. (reflexive) To be proud or honoured to be or do something.^[5][21]
6. (Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Ecuador) To fulfil the terms of a contract or agreement;^[17] (Bolivia, Ecuador) to pay off a debt.^[17]

Word family

• honra
• honrado
• honradez
• honroso
• honrilla
• deshonrar
• deshonra

Related words

• honor
• honorar
• honorable
• honesto
• Latin honoro
• Portuguese honrar

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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, 383
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. honorare
4. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. honrar
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. honrar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. honōrō
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 341
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. honorer
10. ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 368
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. honrar
12. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
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. honrar
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. 991
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 174
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 476
17. ^ 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. honrar
18. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. honrar
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. honrar
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. 574
21. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. honrar