ladrar

Forms

ladrar (first-person singular present ladro, first-person singular preterite ladré, past participle ladrado)^[1] Asturian and Leonese have lladrar, and the valley of Benasque ñadrá, probably influenced by the onomatopoeia ñau ñau.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lātrō (“to bark”), through Old Spanish ladrar.^[2][4][5][1] Corominas notes that the verb has been in use at every period and is common to all the Romance languages except French and Rhaeto-Romance.^[2] The same Latin verb is Portuguese ladrar, Catalan lladrar, Italian latrare and Romanian lătra.^[6][3] Though Spanish speakers feel the verb as related to ladrón “thief”, the two Latin words have nothing in common.^[2]

Wiktionary traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *leh₂- (“to bark, howl”), an expressive root also behind lāmentum.^[1][7] Gómez de Silva likewise takes it from a root imitating the sounds of barking, groaning and chatter.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), a paraphrase of the Bible, in the Exodus story: a fijos de Israel non ladrara can, a omne ni a bestia “against the children of Israel no dog shall bark, at man or beast”.^[9][10] The sense is the dog's bark, as in Latin.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in a 15th-century copy) already uses the proverb that a dog that barks a lot is not to be feared.^[9] Alfonso X's General estoria uses the infinitive as a noun for a dog's bark, and the verb for the noise of waves that seem to bark.^[11] Corominas's own first record is Juan Ruiz, in the 1330s.^[2][4]

Autoridades added two figurative senses: to threaten in words without attacking, which it found in Covarrubias, and to cry out in warning against some danger or evil.^[12] From 1817 the Academy's dictionary has the senses “threaten without attacking” and “attack in words, usually with malice”, which the DLE still gives as colloquial.^[13][5] Moliner adds a transitive use, “bark at someone”, and the saying ladran, luego andamos “they bark, so we are moving”: protests show that an action is having an effect.^[14]

In Venezuela ladrar means to be broke, and in the Dominican Republic to speak loudly and disrespectfully.^[15][16] The noun for the bark, ladrido, is first found in Nebrija; a variant latrido, crossed with latido, goes back to the first half of the 14th century, and Corominas suggests it may have started the Spanish nouns in -ido from verbs in -ar, such as chillido and silbido.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – first record, in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy).^[9][10]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre uses the proverb of the dog that barks much.^[9]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses the infinitive as a noun, “the barking”.^[11]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses the verb: Corominas's first record.^[2][4]
• first half of the 14th century – the noun latrido, a variant of ladrido.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records ladrido.^[2]
• 1568 – first record from the Americas, in Guatemala, of a native dog that cannot bark.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the figurative senses “threaten without attacking” and “cry out in warning”.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives the verb from Latin latrare.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, of a dog) To bark: El perro del vecino ladra cada vez que pasa el cartero.^[5][1]
2. (intransitive, colloquial) To threaten without attacking.^[5]
3. (colloquial) To attack someone in words, to censure, usually with malice; to speak harshly or snap at someone.^[5][14][19]
4. (Venezuela, colloquial) To be broke.^[15]
5. (Dominican Republic) To speak loudly and disrespectfully.^[16]

Word family

• ladrido
• ladrador

Related words

• Latin lātrō
• Catalan lladrar

Usage notes

Moliner records the saying ladran, luego andamos and the phrase ladrar a la luna “to bark at the moon”, to protest in vain.^[14][20]

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, 554
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3785
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ladrar
5. ^ a b c d e 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. ladrar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. latrare
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. latro
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 413
9. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ladrar
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ladrar
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. ladrar
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 349
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 514
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ladrar
15. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. ladrar
16. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. ladrar
17. ^ 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. ladrar
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 626
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. ladrar
20. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1000