lastimar

Forms

lastimar (first-person singular present lastimo, first-person singular preterite lastimé, past participle lastimado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *blastemare, an altered form of blasphēmō (“to slander; to blaspheme”), which was taken from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō, “to speak impiously; to defame”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas explains ⟨-st-⟩ by a dissimilation of the two labials in a popular pronunciation *blaspemare; the form with ⟨-st-⟩ is already found in a Latin inscription from Gaul.^[2] He traces the Greek verb to βλάπτω (bláptō, “to harm”) and φήμη (phḗmē, “speech”), and rejects Fouché's derivation from Latin lassus (“tired”).^[2] It is a doublet of blasfemar, the learned borrowing of the same Latin verb.^[1]

The other Romance languages kept the sense “to blame, blaspheme”: Old Catalan blastomar (today flastomar), Old Occitan blastemar, Romanian blestema and French blâmer, from which Italian biasimare.^[2][3] Only Spanish and the Portuguese verb lastimar moved from “to defame” to “to insult, wrong”, and, from there, perhaps as a euphemism, to “to hurt physically” and “to move to pity”.^[2][3]

The loss of ⟨b-⟩ is irregular, since blando and bledo keep it;^[5] Corominas explains it by the dissimilating effect of the ⟨-m-⟩, as the group ⟨gl-⟩ was regularly reduced to ⟨l-⟩.^[2] The ⟨i⟩ comes from the noun lástima, where the unstressed vowel of a proparoxytone became ⟨i⟩, as in lágrima.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the DCECH is Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor (1330–1343), where Christ is led away firiendo que lastima, “beaten so that it was pitiful”.^[2][3] The DEMel lists lastimar and a form estemar in Alfonso X's Siete Partidas (1256–1265).^[5]

Semantic evolution

Corominas considers “to wrong, offend morally” the original sense; it is common in the classics, from Alonso de Palencia (1490) to Cervantes, Aldrete in 1606 (pica sin lastimar) and Cienfuegos in 1702.^[2][3] Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as wounding or ill-treating another, by word as well as by deed.^[6][2] The physical sense, especially for a light injury, was already in Palencia and became the commonest in all periods.^[2] The sense “to cause pity”, and reflexive “to feel pity”, was very common in the Golden Age and is now little used.^[2][4]

Autoridades recorded “to wound and ill-treat”, “to move to compassion” and, in a moral sense, “to offend by what one says”.^[7] In the Dominican Republic, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay it also means “to break or dislocate a bone”.^[8] Wiktionary marks the physical senses as mainly Latin American or formal.^[1]

Timeline

• 1256–1265 – the DEMel lists lastimar and estemar in the Siete Partidas.^[5]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses it for “to cause pity”.^[2][3]
• c. 1350 – Pedro de Veragüe writes lastymado.^[9]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia has the senses “to wrong” and “to hurt”.^[2][3]
• 1566 – first record from the Americas, in Yucatán.^[10]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines hurting by word or deed.^[6]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Italian biasimare.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also reflexive) To hurt, injure: Me lastimé la rodilla.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To offend someone's self-esteem or honour.^[4][1]
3. (transitive, rare) To pity; see compadecer.^[4][1]
4. (reflexive, rare) To feel sorry for another's misfortune.^[4]
5. (reflexive, rare) To complain, show pain or grief.^[4]
6. (Dominican Republic, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay) To break or dislocate a bone.^[8]

Word family

• lastimadura
• lástima
• lastimero
• lastimoso

Related words

• blasfemar
• blasfemia
• Portuguese lastimar
• French blâmer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 591
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lastimar
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. lastimar
5. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. lastimar
6. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1068
7. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 366
8. ^ 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. lastimar
9. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. lastimar
10. ^ 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. lastimar
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 631