lavar

Forms

lavar (first-person singular present lavo, first-person singular preterite lavé, past participle lavado)^[1] The Glosas Silenses spell it labare.^[2] Asturian has llavar and the Leonese of Babia xavar.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lavāre (“to wash”), Old Spanish lavar.^[2][4][5][1] In Old Latin the verb was also inflected in the third conjugation, in the sense “to wash something or someone”, while the first-conjugation forms meant “to wash oneself, bathe”; the first conjugation ousted the third.^[6][7]

The same verb is found in all the Romance languages: Portuguese lavar, Galician lavar, Asturian llavar, Occitan lavar, French laver, Italian lavare and Romanian la.^[2][8][3]

lavō continues Proto-Italic *lowō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”), and is related to Ancient Greek λούω (loúō, “to bathe”).^[1] How the Latin first conjugation arose is disputed: Schrijver starts from a stative verb, while de Vaan suggests a new formation with the suffix -ā-.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Silenses, of the second half of the 10th century, have labare.^[2][4] The Fuero de Madrid (in a copy of the first half of the 13th century) fines „Qvi tripas lauare del alcantariella de sancti Petri” “whoever washes tripe at the drain of Saint Peter”.^[9] Berceo has a saint who lavaba su cabeza, “washed his head”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses the verb both for cleaning with water and for removing an illness or a stain, the beginning of the moral sense.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades records the moral sense “to purify a stain”, with a quotation about men who wash a stain in their neighbours' blood, and the plasterers' sense of finishing a whitewash with a wet cloth.^[12] In the Americas the verb soon named the washing of ore in the mines: Fernández de Oviedo in 1548 describes miners washing the earth of each layer down to the bedrock.^[13]

The current dictionary adds laundering money, colouring a drawing with washes, washing ores and, intransitively, a fabric that washes well or badly.^[5] In Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua lavar is to clean the coffee bean with water after pulping, and in the Dominican Republic to beat someone until he bleeds.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – the Glosas Silenses have labare.^[2][4]
• 1141–1235 – the Fuero de Madrid uses lauare (in a 13th-century copy).^[9][16]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario says asbestos comes out of the fire as clean as if it had been washed.^[11]
• 1254 – the Judizios de las estrellas uses it of removing an illness.^[11]
• 1495 – Nebrija records the derivatives lavadero, lavador and lavadura.^[4]
• 1548 – Fernández de Oviedo uses it for washing ore in the mines of the Indies.^[13]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “to wash”.^[17]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the moral sense and the plasterers' sense.^[12]
• 1869 – lavabo, taken from the Latin of the Mass, enters the Academy's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wash, clean with water or another liquid; also reflexive: Lávate las manos antes de comer.^[5][1]
2. To purify, to remove a defect, stain or discredit: lavar la ofensa.^[5][1]
3. To launder money.^[5]
4. (building) Of a plasterer: to finish a whitewash by polishing it with a wet cloth.^[5][12]
5. To colour a drawing with washes.^[5]
6. (mining) To clean ores with water.^[5][18]
7. (intransitive) Of a fabric: to wash well or badly.^[5]
8. (Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua) To wash the coffee bean after pulping.^[14]

Word family

• lavado
• lavadero
• lavador
• lavadora
• lavadura
• lavandería
• lavatorio
• lavativa
• lavazas
• deslavar
• lavabo
• lavamanos
• lavaplatos
• lavavajillas

Related words

• lavable
• lavación
• lavada
• lavaje
• loción
• Latin lavō
• Portuguese lavar

Usage notes

Lavarse las manos “to wash one's hands” of something is a common idiom.^[1][18]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 609
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. lavare
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lavar
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. lavar
6. ^ a b 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. lavo
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. lavar
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. lavare
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. lavar
10. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 428
11. ^ 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. lavar
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, 371
13. ^ a b 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. lavar
14. ^ 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. lavar
15. ^ 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. lavar
16. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. lavar
17. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 161
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lavar