imaginar

Forms

imaginar (first-person singular present imagino, first-person singular preterite imaginé, past participle imaginado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote ymaginar and imaginar, with the past participle ymaginado or emaginado.^[2][3] A popular variant maginar is found from about 1400, and amaginar in the Cancionero de Baena.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin imāginor (“to picture to oneself, imagine”), formed from imāgō (“image, likeness”).^{[4][5][6][1][7]} From the variant maginar comes the popular noun magín “wits, imagination”, first in the Academy's dictionary in 1817.^[4][5]

The same word is Portuguese imaginar, Catalan imaginar, French imaginer and Italian immaginare.^[1]

According to de Vaan, the noun and imitor (“to copy, imitate”) both come from an earlier verb *imā-je/o-, and the root is Proto-Indo-European *h₂i-m-h₂- (“image”), with a cognate in Hittite himma- (“imitation, substitute”).^[8] Corominas also derives the noun from a pre-literary verb, whose frequentative gave learned imitar and popular remedar.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb first appears in Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250), describing a white stone: ymagina omne en ella una linna uermeia commo si fuesse fuego “one fancies one sees in it a red line as if it were fire”.^[9][3] The Setenario (c. 1252–1270) uses the participle for a thing conceived in the mind: en cuya uoluntad era ymaginado el Ffijo “in whose will the Son was conceived”.^[3][2] The CDH's earlier hits of about 1250 are forms of the noun imagen.^[3] Corominas dates the verb to the early 14th century, in the Zifar.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X also used it for adorning a place with images, and the first part of his Partidas says that the imagining sense can only work on what the senses have seen or felt.^[9][3] Nebrija gave Latin imaginor as its equivalent.^[10] Autoridades defines it as forming images in the fancy, as devising things fancifully without ground, and as decorating a building with images, quoting Clavijo's Embajada: Es todo imaginado de imágines y figuras mui fermosas “it is all adorned with very beautiful images and figures”.^[11]

The Academy's 1817 dictionary has “to form a concept of something”, with the obsolete senses “to adorn with images” and “to impress (on the mind)”.^[12] Salvá in 1846 added the reflexive “to persuade oneself vainly of something”.^[13] From 1884 the Academy gives “to represent something in the mind” and “to presume, suspect”.^[14] The DLE now has picturing, supposing from clues, inventing and conceiving with the fancy.^[6] Moliner records the emphatic ¡ni imaginarlo! “not a chance!”.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – first recorded, in Alfonso X's Lapidario.^[9][3]
• c. 1252–1270 – the Setenario has the participle ymaginado.^[3][2]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria uses it for adorning a tomb with images.^[9]
• early 14th century – Corominas's first record, in the Zifar.^[4][5]
• c. 1400 – the popular variant maginar appears in the Rimado de Palacio.^[4]
• 1566 – the first record from the Americas, in Yucatán.^[16]
• 1817 – magín enters the Academy's dictionary.^[4][5]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the sense “to presume, suspect”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also reflexive) To imagine, picture in the mind: Imagina una playa al atardecer.^[6][1]
2. (transitive, also reflexive) To suppose from certain signs: Imagino que ya habrás cenado.^[6][1]
3. (transitive) To invent or devise.^[6][15]
4. (transitive) To conceive something with the fancy.^[6]
5. (obsolete) To adorn a place with images.^[17][9]

Word family

• imaginable
• imaginación
• imaginativo
• magín

Related words

• imagen
• imaginario
• imitar
• remedar
• Latin imāgō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. imaginar
3. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. imaginar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 443
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. imagen
6. ^ 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. imaginar
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e 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. imaginar
10. ^ 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. imaginar
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 213
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 484
13. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 603
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 585
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. imaginar
16. ^ 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. imaginar
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. imaginar