madurar

Forms

madurar (first-person singular present maduro, first-person singular preterite maduré, past participle madurado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mātūrō (“to ripen; to hasten”).^[2][3][1] The Latin verb is formed from the adjective mātūrus (“ripe”), the source of maduro.^[4][5]

The same Latin verb is Italian maturare, Sardinian madurare, Occitan madurar, Catalan madurar and Portuguese madurar.^[6] Wiktionary compares the English learned words maturate and mature.^[1]

De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *mātu- (“ripeness”) and Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-tu-, a noun also behind mātūtīnus (“of the morning”); he takes the root to be that of mānus (“good”).^[7] In Latin the verb also meant “to hurry”, a sense Spanish did not keep.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Almerich's La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in Pharaoh's cupbearer's dream of a vine whose branches budded and bore grapes that maduravan “ripened”.^[10][11] Corominas dates the verb 1335.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb was used of fruit and of abscesses: Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250) has a stone that makes fruit ripen quickly and another that brings a swelling to a head.^[12][10] The Libro de Alexandre already uses it figuratively, of a speech that maduró the hearts of the army.^[10]

Nebrija distinguishes transitive madurar otra cosa, Latin maturo, from intransitive madurarse, Latin maturesco.^[13] Autoridades (1734) adds the sense “grow in age, judgement and prudence”, said of unruly young people who have not yet matured, and the surgeon's use.^[14] The Academy in 1884 adds “to think an idea or plan through until it is ready”.^[15] Moliner records the proverb con el tiempo maduran las uvas.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar has maduravan, of grapes.^[10]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre uses it figuratively.^[10]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of fruit and of swellings.^[12][10]
• 1335 – Corominas's date for the verb.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin maturo and maturesco.^[13]
• 1734 – Autoridades records “to grow in judgement”.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds “to think through an idea or plan”.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To ripen: to make fruit ready to eat: El calor de julio madura los melocotones.^[2][1]
2. (transitive) To think an idea or plan through until it is ready; to mull over.^[2][1]
3. (intransitive) To mature; to grow ripe or reach maturity of judgement.^[2][1]
4. (intransitive, medicine) Of an abscess (absceso) or inflammation: to come to a head.^[2][16]

Word family

• madurativo
• maduración

Related words

• maduro
• madurez
• Latin mātūrus
• Portuguese madurar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. madurar
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. maduro
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. mātūrō
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 435
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5430
7. ^ 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. mātūrus
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 451
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4214
10. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. madurar
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. madurar
12. ^ 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. madurar
13. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. madurar
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. madurar
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 661
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. madurar