ignorar

Forms

ignorar (first-person singular present ignoro, first-person singular preterite ignoré, past participle ignorado)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, inherited from Old Spanish ignorar, borrowed from Latin ignōrō (“to have no knowledge of, be unaware of”).^[2][3][1][4] Corominas describes the Latin verb as a negative formation on the root of (g)nōscere (“to know”).^[2] Bénaben derives it from ignārus (“ignorant”), made of the negative prefix in- and gnārus (“knowing”).^[5]

De Vaan reports the older view that the verb was formed on that adjective and took its long o from ignōtus (“unknown”), and finds it unlikely, since the simple adjective kept its long a.^[6] He prefers Nussbaum's explanation, a present *gnō-sā- (“to know”) of an old Latin type, or a direct continuation of the Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃-s- (“to recognize, know”) that is also seen in a Hittite verb.^[6] Wiktionary calls the details disputed, but the root *ǵneh₃- (“to know”) is not in doubt.^[1]

The same Latin verb, inherited, is Catalan enyorar, which went from “not to know where someone is” to “to miss, long for”.^[7] Spanish took the doublet añorar from Catalan.^[8][1] García de Diego adds Galician anoirar.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb, with ignorante and ignorancia, to 1438.^[2] DICCA-XV has it from 1413, and the CDH from Juan Fernández de Heredia's Libro de actoridades (1376–1396), in the participle: dubdoso et ignorado por los duques mismos, “doubtful and unknown to the dukes themselves”.^[9][10] The DEMel lists earlier records from secondary sources, the vocabulary of the Fuero de Sepúlveda (c. 1295) and López de Ayala's Rimado de palacio (c. 1385).^[11] The earliest CDH hit, in the Calila e Dimna of 1251, is the adjective ignorante in a copy of about 1400.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary of 1492 glosses ignoro as no saber, “not to know”.^[9] Covarrubias in 1611 and the Diccionario de Autoridades gave the same sense, the latter with quotations from Mariana and Nieremberg.^[12][13] Early American texts also have the popular spelling inorar (Santo Domingo, 1548).^[14]

In 1855 the purist Baralt condemned the reflexive ignorarse a sí mismo and phrases like ignorar a los hombres as Gallicisms, saying the verb meant only “not to know”.^[15] The sense “to take no notice of, disregard” was nevertheless admitted by the Academy in 2001, and Moliner and the Tesoro lexicográfico of Puerto Rico ascribe it to English ignore.^[16][17][18]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – first record in the CDH, the participle ignorado in Fernández de Heredia.^[10]
• 1413 – first record in DICCA-XV.^[9]
• 1438 – the date Corominas gives for the verb, ignorante and ignorancia.^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin dictionary glosses Latin ignoro with no saber.^[9]
• 1546 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as not knowing, or not having heard of something.^[12]
• 1855 – Baralt criticises the reflexive and the personal uses as Gallicisms.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the Latin etymology.^[19]
• 2001 – the Academy adds the sense “to take no notice of”.^[16][18]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) Not to know, to be unaware of: Ignoramos a qué hora sale el tren.^[3][1]
2. (transitive) To ignore, disregard: to pay no attention to someone or something, or to act as if they were not there: Me ignoró toda la tarde.^[3][1][17]

Word family

• ignorante

Related words

• ignorancia
• ignaro
• añorar
• conocer
• Latin ignōrō
• Catalan enyorar

Usage notes

The second sense is an Anglicism by origin; it has been in the Academy's dictionary since 2001.^[17][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ignorar
3. ^ a b c 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. ignorar
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ignorare
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. ignorar
6. ^ 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
7. ^ 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, 411
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 351
9. ^ a b c d 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. ignorar
10. ^ 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. ignorar
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ignorar
12. ^ 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. 1036
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 207
14. ^ a b 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. ignorar
15. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 375
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ignorar
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ignorar
18. ^ a b c Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. ignorar
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. 584