librar

Forms

librar (first-person singular present libro, first-person singular preterite libré, past participle librado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin līberāre (“to set free”), from līber (“free”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} It is a popular word, and a doublet of liberar, a learned borrowing of the same verb first recorded in the second half of the 19th century.^[1][2][6] The popular verb lost the Latin vowel between /b/ and /r/, which the learned deliberar keeps.^[3]

The same verb is Portuguese livrar, Galician librar, Asturian llibrar, Catalan lliurar, Occitan liurar and French livrer; in French and Occitan it also took the sense “to deliver, to hand over”.^[7][6][1] The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *leuþ-ero- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁leudʰ-ero-, the source also of Ancient Greek ἐλεύθερος (eleútheros, “free”); liut “people” comes from the same root.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) uses librar in senses that have since been lost: “to cut through, to finish off” (the Cid's sword librado todo lo ál “having cut through all the rest”) and “to clear” the field when a duel was over.^[9][10] The Liber regum (c. 1194–1211) has God los liuró en poder de lures enemigos “handed them over to their enemies”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the verb meant to free, to save from harm, to deliver, to decide a suit and to finish a task;^[11][12] Berceo has it for saving from the devil, for curing and for settling a dispute.^[11][12] The old sense “to dispatch, to issue” led to issuing an order of payment, recorded from 1495, and to libranza “order of payment”.^[2] Autoridades (1734) defines it first as rescuing someone from danger and adds issuing a written order of payment and dispatching business or decrees.^[13] With nouns such as batalla it means to wage, as in librar batalla.^[14][4] The intransitive “to give birth” and “to expel the placenta” belong to older medicine; in colloquial Spain librar is to have a day off work.^[4][1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[9][2]
• c. 1194–1211 – liuró “handed over” in the Liber regum.^[9]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Libro de las cruzes uses it for “to decide” a suit.^[12]
• 1495 – the sense “to issue an order of payment” and the noun libranza.^[2]
• 1528 – first record in the Americas, in Nicaragua, for paying out money.^[15]
• 1734 – Autoridades gives rescuing, issuing an order of payment and dispatching business.^[13]
• 19th century – the learned doublet liberar.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (also reflexive) To free, to save or spare someone from a task, harm or danger: Se libró del castigo por muy poco.^[4][1]
2. To place one's trust or hope in someone or something.^[4][1]
3. To issue or give out something, especially an order or a decree.^[4]
4. (law, commerce) To draw a bill of exchange, cheque or other order of payment.^[16][1]
5. To wage a battle, also figuratively.^[4][1]
6. (intransitive, colloquial, Spain) To have the day off work.^[4][1]
7. (intransitive) To give birth; to expel the placenta.^[4][1]

Word family

• librador
• libramiento
• libranza
• delibrar

Related words

• libre
• liberar
• libertad
• Latin līber
• Portuguese livrar

Usage notes

A bien librar or a buen librar means “at best, the least bad outcome”, and salir bien librado “to come off well”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. libre
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 440
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. librar
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 422
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. liberare
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. liberare
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. librar
10. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 324
11. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 439
12. ^ 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. librar
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 398
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 643
15. ^ 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. librar
16. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. librar