mantener

Forms

mantener (first-person singular present mantengo, first-person singular preterite mantuve, past participle mantenido)^[1] It is conjugated like tener: mantienes, mantengo, mantuvo.^[2] Old Spanish had the preterite mantouo, as in mantouiesse.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin manū tenēre (“to hold in the hand; to support”).^[5][6][1] Corominas calls it a compound common to all the western Romance languages.^[5] The Latin phrase joins manū (“with the hand”), the ablative of manus (“hand”), and teneō (“to hold”); in Spanish terms it is mano and tener.^[1][7][8]

The same compound is Portuguese manter, Galician manter, Asturian mantener, Catalan mantenir, Occitan mantener, French maintenir and Italian mantenere.^[9][10] The DHLF takes this spread, everywhere but in Romanian, as proof that the compound already existed in Latin.^[11] Wiktionary notes instead that the Latin verb is not attested in this use before the 11th century and may be a calque of the Romance forms.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to a document of 1100, then to the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca and Berceo; the Breve diccionario gives the beginning of the 13th century.^[5][12] The Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211, in a copy of the early 13th century) says of a king who left no son that there was no man of his line „qui mantouiesse el reismo” “who might keep the kingdom”.^[4] In the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215) the saint „los mantenie a grant deliçio”, keeping her lovers in luxury.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb meant both “to keep, uphold” and “to feed, support”: Alfonso X's prose of 1254 uses it for feeding oneself.^[13] Nebrija's Latin equivalents are cibo, alo and nutrio, all verbs of feeding.^[14]

In 1611 Covarrubias defined it as “to sustain”, chiefly by giving food, and recorded mantener la palabra “to keep one's word” and mantener justas o torneo, to hold a joust as its leading champion, called the mantenedor.^[15] The Autoridades put first the literal sense, holding something with the hand so that it does not fall.^[2] The DLE keeps the senses of feeding and paying for someone, keeping something going, holding it up, carrying on, upholding an opinion, and a legal sense of protecting someone in possession.^[6] In Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic mantenerse is to be always at a place, often someone else's house.^[16]

Timeline

• 1100 – first record, in a document listed by Corominas.^[5]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum, with mantouiesse.^[4]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca.^[4][5]
• 1218 – a charter asks that the mill and the vassals be kept, que mantengades el molino.^[4]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo has mantenimiento and mantenencia.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives cibo, alo and nutrio.^[14]
• 1525 – Mexico City, the first record from the Americas.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records mantener la palabra and mantenedor.^[15]
• 1688 – first record of the learned manutención.^[5][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To provide someone with food; to feed.^[6]
2. (transitive) To support someone financially: Mantiene a sus padres con su sueldo.^[6]
3. (transitive) To maintain, keep something in being and in good order.^[6][1]
4. (transitive) To hold something up so that it does not fall or bend.^[6]
5. (transitive) To keep up what one is doing: mantener el ritmo.^[6]
6. (transitive) To uphold an opinion or system.^[6]
7. (transitive) To hold a tournament or joust as its champion.^[6]
8. (law) To protect someone in the possession of something.^[6]
9. (pronominal) Of a body: to stay in a medium or place without falling, or falling slowly.^[6]
10. (pronominal) To persevere, not change one's state or decision: Se mantuvo firme.^[6]

Word family

• mantenedor
• mantenimiento
• mantención

Related words

• manutención
• mano
• tener
• Latin manus
• Latin teneō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 487
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. mantener
4. ^ 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. mantener
5. ^ 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, 817
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. mantener
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 442
8. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 675
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. manu tenere
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mano
13. ^ 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. mantener
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 377
15. ^ 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. 1113
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. mantener
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. mantener