mendigar

Forms

mendigar (first-person singular present mendigo, first-person singular preterite mendigué, past participle mendigado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mendīcō (“to beg, go begging”)^[2][3][1], a verb formed on mendīcus (“beggarly, needy; a beggar”).^[4] Spanish mendigo continues the Latin adjective.^[3]

The Latin adjective comes from mendum (“physical blemish, fault”)^[1][5], so that it must first have meant “having a bodily defect, infirm”, then “poor” and “beggar”.^[6] De Vaan finds no certain further etymology for the Latin noun.^[5]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese mendigar, Galician mendigar, Old Occitan mendigar, French mendier (first Old French mendeier, 1080) and Italian mendicare.^[7][6][8] Catalan mendicar was taken from Latin.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest record is the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (about 1200, in a 13th-century copy), where the blind man of Jericho sits by the road begging: estava el ciego prueb de la carrera e mendigava “the blind man was near the road and begged”.^[10][11] The first record in a text without a later copy is the Fueros de Aragón of 1247, in a curse: To muller & tos fillos uayan mendigando de puerta en puerta “may your wife and children go begging from door to door”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Berceo has the wicked mendigando at the Last Judgement.^[10][12] Nebrija equates it with Latin mendico.^[13] Covarrubias defines it only briefly, with the noun mendiguez “the poverty of one who begs”.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as begging alms from door to door, and added a transferred sense: to take or make use of something because one is forced by need.^[15] In 1869 the Academy replaced that with the figurative sense still in the DLE, to seek someone's favour insistently and even humbly.^[16][2]

In the Americas it is recorded from 1541 in Michoacán, of a mother begging with her daughter.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (13th-century copy) says the blind man of Jericho mendigava.^[10]
• 1220–1250 – the date Corominas gives for the first record.^[3]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón: mendigando de puerta en puerta.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: Mendigar el pobre, Latin mendico.^[13]
• 1541 – first record in the Americas, in Michoacán.^[17]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “to beg”.^[18]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the transferred sense “to resort to something out of need”.^[15]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary gives the sense “to seek someone's favour with insistence and humiliation”.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin mendicare.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To beg for alms, especially from door to door: Pasó el invierno mendigando en la plaza del pueblo.^[2][1]
2. (figurative) To ask insistently and humbly for something, such as a favour: No pienso mendigar su aprobación.^[2][20]

Related words

• mendigo
• mendicante
• mendicidad
• Latin mendicus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. mendigar
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mendigo
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. mendīcō
5. ^ 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. mendum
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. mendier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. mendicare
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2193
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. mendicar
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. mendigar
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. mendigar
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 485
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. mendigar
14. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1128
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 539
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 502
17. ^ 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. mendigar
18. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 171
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 693
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mendigar