lanzar

Forms

lanzar (first-person singular present lanzo, first-person singular preterite lancé, past participle lanzado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish lançar, inherited from Late Latin lanceō (“to wield a lance”), a verb formed in Latin from lancea (“lance, light spear”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas notes that the Late Latin verb is common to all the western Romance languages: Portuguese lançar, Galician lanzar, Asturian llanzar, Catalan llançar, Occitan lançar, French lancer and Italian lanciare.^[2][1] The DHLF records the French verb from 1080.^[5] Spanish later borrowed the doublet lancear.^[1]

The noun was a foreign word in Latin.^[6][1] Varro, quoted by Gellius, called it Spanish, Festus compared Ancient Greek λόγχη (lónkhē), and the OLD considers it apparently Celtic.^[6][7] Wiktionary takes it from Celtic or Celtiberian, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k- (“to hit”).^[1] Du Cange cites Diodorus, who calls it a Gaulish word.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb first meant “to throw a lance”, in the Poema de Fernán González and the Primera crónica general, which Corominas dates to the third quarter of the 13th century.^[2][3] In the Estoria de España (1270–1284) the enemy throw arrows and other weapons at a knight: las saetas & las otras armas quel lançauan.^[9] The DEMel cites a secondary record from the Libro de Alexandre (before 1230–c. 1250).^[10]

Semantic evolution

The general sense “to throw with force” appears in Juan Manuel and Juan Ruiz, about 1330.^[2][3] Alfonso X's Libro del acedrex (1283) uses it for throwing dice, and lançar batalla for casting lots to decide who plays first.^[9] Corominas calls the verb general in the Middle Ages and the Golden Age.^[2]

Autoridades in 1734 gave “to throw”, “to drive someone out of a place”, “to vomit” and the falconer's sense “to release a bird”.^[11] The Academy's 1817 edition added lanzar los demonios “to cast out devils”, the legal sense “to dispossess” and the obsolete senses “to impose” and “to spend”.^[12] In 1855 Baralt rejected lanzarse in the sense of French s'élancer as a gallicism.^[13] The modern dictionaries add “to promote something new” and “to launch oneself into an action”.^[4]

In the Americas the word means “to vomit” in Puerto Rico, “to pitch” in Dominican baseball, and in Nicaragua “to eat greedily”.^[14][15][16]

Timeline

• 1250–1275 – the verb means “to throw a lance” in the Poema de Fernán González and the Primera crónica general.^[2][3]
• 1283 – Alfonso X's Libro del acedrex uses it for throwing dice.^[9]
• c. 1330 – Juan Manuel and Juan Ruiz use it for throwing with force.^[2][3]
• 1490 – first record of lanzadera and of lance “a throw”.^[3]
• 1526 – the first record from the Americas, in Santa Marta.^[17]
• 1734 – Autoridades records the senses “to expel”, “to vomit” and “to release a bird”.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy records the legal sense “to dispossess”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To throw, hurl; also pronominal, to throw oneself: Lanzó la pelota por encima de la valla.^[4][1]
2. (falconry) To release, set free a bird.^[4]
3. To launch, promote the quick spread of something new: La empresa lanzará su nuevo modelo en primavera.^[4][1]
4. To give out, utter or emit: Lanzó una carcajada que se oyó en toda la casa.^[4][1]
5. (agriculture) To put out shoots.^[4]
6. (law) To dispossess someone of a property or holding.^[4]
7. (rare) To vomit.^[4][14]
8. (pronominal) To launch into an action eagerly or rashly: Se lanzó a cantar sin pensarlo dos veces.^[4]
9. (baseball) To pitch.^[1][15]

Word family

• lance
• lanzamiento
• lanzadera
• lanzador
• lanzallamas
• lanzagranadas
• lanzatorpedos

Related words

• lanza
• lancear
• Latin lancea
• French lancer
• English launch

Usage notes

The DLE keeps the obsolete senses “to impose, load” and “to spend, invest”.^[4] In the old tournaments lanzar el tablado was to throw lances or darts at a wooden stand until it fell.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 576
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lanza
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. lanzar
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. lancer
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. lancea
8. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. lancea
9. ^ a b c 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. lanzar
10. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. lanzar
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 361
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 517
13. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 405
14. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. lanzar
15. ^ 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. lanzar
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. lanzar
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. lanzar
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 429