inflar

Forms

inflar (first-person singular present inflo, first-person singular preterite inflé, past participle inflado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin īnflō (“to blow into, inflate”), a learned doublet of the inherited hinchar.^[2][3][1][4] The DCECH dates the learned word from Juan de Mena.^[2] DICCA-XV calls it instead the Aragonese outcome of the Latin verb, shared with Catalan inflar, and the earliest hits in the CDH are Aragonese and Navarrese texts.^[5][6]

The Latin verb is formed from in- (“in, into”) and flō (“to blow”).^[7][1] The simple verb probably goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to blow”).^[8][1] The DCECH explains the initial ⟨h⟩ of the popular doublet by a metathesis of the aspiration that came from the Latin /f/, at a preliterary stage when /l/ after it was voiceless.^[2][9] The Latin verb survives in all the Romance languages, as in French enfler, Italian enfiare, Romanian umfla and Portuguese inchar.^[10][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is the Aragonese Vidal Mayor (c. 1250), of a swollen wound, la plaga inflada; the Fuero General de Navarra (1250–1300) has ondas inflantes “swelling waves”, and Juan Fernández de Heredia (1376–1396) writes that in a storm the waves se inflan.^[6] In Castilian the learned verb appears with Juan de Mena, about 1444.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

The Comendador Griego's commentary on Mena (1499), quoted by Autoridades, has the sails las quales infla el viento “which the wind fills”.^[2][12] Autoridades (1734) also records the figurative sense “to make proud, puff up with vanity”.^[12] The Academy's 1869 edition widened the first sense to filling something with any gas, and the modern dictionaries add “to exaggerate facts or news”.^[13][14] Colloquial uses in Spain are “to beat someone repeatedly” (inflar a bofetadas) and, pronominal, “to have one's fill” of something.^[15][16] In Mexico it is popular for “to drink alcohol”, and in Chile for “to pay attention to someone”.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – inflada in the Aragonese Vidal Mayor.^[6]
• 1376–1396 – se inflan in Juan Fernández de Heredia.^[6]
• 1444 – first in Castilian, in Juan de Mena.^[2][11]
• 1499 – the Comendador Griego's commentary on Mena.^[2]
• 1588 – the first record from the Americas, in New Granada, of sails swollen by the wind.^[18]
• 1734 – Autoridades calls it a Latin word and records the figurative sense.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin inflare.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To inflate; to fill something with air or another gas: Los niños inflaron los globos para la fiesta.^[15][16][1]
2. (transitive) To exaggerate (exagerar) facts, news or figures.^[15][16][4]
3. (transitive, mostly pronominal) To make proud or conceited.^[15]
4. (colloquial) To beat someone repeatedly: inflar a tortas.^[15][16]
5. (colloquial, pronominal) To have one's fill of something.^[15][16]
6. (Mexico, popular) To drink alcohol to get drunk.^[17]
7. (Chile) To pay attention to someone or something.^[17]

Word family

• inflable
• desinflar

Related words

• inflación
• hinchar
• Latin īnflō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 365
3. ^ 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. inflar
4. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
5. ^ 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. inflar
6. ^ 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. inflar
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. inflō
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. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hinchar
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 375
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 266
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 433
14. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
17. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
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. inflar
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. 596