ir

Forms

ir (first-person singular present voy, first-person singular preterite fui, past participle ido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin īre (“to go”).^[2][3][4][1] The Romance languages kept the infinitive of the Latin verb only in Spanish and Portuguese, in the Bearnese valleys of Aspe and Barétous and in some Rhaeto-Romance, Italian, Dalmatian and Romanian dialects.^[2] Portuguese ir and Galician ir are the same verb.^[5][2]

The verb is suppletive: its paradigm joins forms of three Latin verbs.^[2][6][1] The infinitive, the imperfect iba (from ībam), the future and conditional (iré, iría), the gerund yendo, the participle ido and the plural imperative id belong to the Latin verb itself.^[6] The present indicative and subjunctive, with voy and vaya, come from Latin vādō (“to advance, proceed”), a verb of movement with a nuance of speed and force: ⟨vado⟩ gave ⟨vao⟩, then vo, and finally ⟨voy⟩.^[6] Likewise ⟨vadam⟩ gave ⟨vaya⟩, and the short imperative ⟨i⟩ was replaced by ⟨ve⟩, from vāde.^[6][1] The preterite fui, with the imperfect and future subjunctive, was taken from esse (“to be”), so that it is shared with ser.^[6][2][1] The forms of fue in the preterite are general from the oldest literary texts, the Cid and Berceo.^[2] Portuguese foi has the same suppletion, popular French has something like it, and its roots go back to colloquial Latin, in passages of Plautus and Cicero.^[2] Old Spanish still had the Latin-based plural presents imos and ides, in the Cid, the Auto de los Reyes Magos and Berceo, and ydes survived into the Rimado de Palacio.^[2] French aller likewise takes its future and much of its present from the same Latin sources, with a third stem of less clear origin.^[7]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *ei-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”).^[8][1] The second Latin verb goes back to *ueh₂dʰ- (“to advance”), the source of the Germanic verbs for “to wade”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 1056 in Oelschläger's list; the BDELC gives 1065.^[2][3] The Cantar de mio Cid already uses it, and the Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) has one of the Magi say Alá iré “I will go there” to worship the newborn God.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

Already in the 13th century the verb was used for what suits someone (Galba yual muy bien with his army), for where a road leads and for how far a thing extends.^[11] In the Rimado de Palacio and other medieval texts fui with an infinitive served as a periphrastic preterite (fuestes entender “you understood”), as the present of anar does in Catalan.^[2] The most general verb of movement, it became an auxiliary: with a gerund it expresses an action in progress (ir haciendo), and ir a with an infinitive the near future.^[6][4][1]

Autoridades in 1734 lists its irregular forms and the senses “to be”, as in a letter that debe de ir como de molde (Cervantes), and “to bet”, as in van cien doblones.^[12] The vulgar form dir, a hypercorrection of the kind of ejar for dejar, belongs to all the Leonese, Andalusian and Murcian dialects and to almost all of Spanish America, and is already found in the rustic sayagués of 16th-century theatre.^[2] The past participle ido means “crazy” in Argentina and elsewhere.^[2]

Timeline

• 1056 – first record, in a charter.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy) uses the verb, with preterite fue.^[2][10]
• c. 1180 – the Auto de los Reyes Magos has Alá iré.^[10]
• 1251 – first record of the noun ida, in Calila e Dimna.^[2][3]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses ir bien for “to suit”.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin eo for ir por sus pies “to go on foot”.^[13]
• 1512 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[14]
• 1734 – Autoridades lists the irregular forms voi, iba, fui, vaya.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also reflexive) To go: to move from one place towards another, away from the speaker, or, as irse, to leave: Mañana vamos al pueblo.^[4][1]
2. (intransitive) Of a thing, to suit or match something or someone well or badly: Esa corbata no te va con la camisa.^[4][1]
3. (intransitive) To walk about, to and fro.^[4]
4. (intransitive) Of people or things, to differ: ¡Lo que va de un hermano a otro!^[4]
5. (intransitive) Of a road or route, to lead somewhere: Este sendero va al río.^[4][1]
6. (intransitive) Of a thing, to extend in time or space from one point to another.^[4][1]
7. (card games) To go in, to take on the bet.^[4][1]
8. (intransitive) To consider things in a particular way or to aim at a particular end.^[4][1]
9. (with a gerund) Expresses an action in progress: El agua va subiendo.^[4][1]
10. (with a gerund) Expresses an action that is beginning: Ya va oscureciendo.^[4][1]
11. (with certain adjectives or participles) Says ironically the opposite of what they mean: ¡Vas listo si crees eso!^[4][1]
12. (with a past participle) To undergo the action of a transitive verb, or be in the state produced by a reflexive one.^[4][1]
13. (intransitive) Of a sum of money, to be staked in a bet: Van diez euros a que no viene.^[4][1]
14. ir a + infinitive: to be going to, to get ready to do something: Voy a llamar a mi hermana.^[4][1]

Word family

• ida
• ido
• vaivén

Related words

• ser
• circuito
• coito
• éxito
• pretérito
• introito
• vademécum
• Latin vādō

Usage notes

The irregular forms come from three Latin verbs: voy, vaya from vadere, fui from esse and iba, iré from ire.^[6][1] In voseo, the imperative andá is taken from andar.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 467
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ir
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. ir
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 3567
6. ^ a b c d e f g Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. ir
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. aller
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. eō
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. vādō
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. ir
11. ^ 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. ir
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 305
13. ^ 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. ir
14. ^ 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. dir