montar

Forms

montar (first-person singular present monto, first-person singular preterite monté, past participle montado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French monter (“to go up, climb”), taken over in the 13th century as a term of falconry and of accounts, the two senses of the earliest Spanish documents.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary gives the same French source.^[1] The French verb is formed on the noun for “mountain”, which the DLE traces to Latin mōns (“mountain”).^[4][5] Meyer-Lübke and Wiktionary posit a Late Latin verb *montāre “to climb”.^[6][1] Corominas finds little support for that form, and rejects deriving the Spanish word from it rather than from French.^[2]

According to Corominas the verb spread from French to the other Romance languages.^[2] The REW lists Italian montare, Occitan montar, Catalan muntar and Portuguese montar beside the Spanish verb.^[6] In northern France the verb replaced the Latin word for “to climb”, which survives in Spanish ascender.^[5]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *monti- and Proto-Indo-European *mon-ti- (“protrusion, height”), with cognates in Celtic and Avestan words for “mountain”.^[7] Wiktionary connects it with the root *men- (“to stand out, tower”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first certain hit is the Fuero de Alcalá of about 1235, in the sense of accounts: e peche LX soldos que montan XII moravidís “and let him pay sixty sueldos, which come to twelve maravedís”.^[8] Corominas dates the word from two documents of 1244, in which it is used of falconry and of sums of money.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages and the Golden Age the verb meant chiefly “to come to, amount to” and “to matter”: Alfonso X's General estoria has este precio poco me monta a mi “this price matters little to me”.^[9][2] Nebrija renders it only by a Latin phrase for adding up to a total, and in the Quijote it appears only in this financial sense and in tanto monta.^[10][2][11] Covarrubias explains the verb as adding up items that make a heap together, and records the saying Tanto monta, cortar como desatar, from Alexander cutting the Gordian knot.^[12]

The sense “to get on a horse” came in later as a military term.^[2] Corominas does not find it before 1728, and the Academy's Autoridades quotes it from the military ordinances of that year, calling it an Italian word.^[2][13] Corominas thinks the date points rather to a direct borrowing from French.^[2] The technical senses followed: montaje is recorded from 1709, and in 1884 the Academy's dictionary had the senses “to assemble the parts of a machine” and “to set a precious stone”.^[2][14]

In Spain the verb also means to whip egg whites or cream.^[4][1] In Guatemala, Nicaragua and Bolivia the pronominal verb is used of one person dominating another, and in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico of a spirit taking possession of someone.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1235 – the Fuero de Alcalá uses montan of a sum that comes to so many maravedís.^[8]
• 1244 – two documents use the verb in falconry and in accounts, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for “to matter”.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives it a Latin equivalent meaning “to add up to a sum”.^[10][2]
• 1520 – the first record in the Americas, in a list of prices from Darién.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the saying Tanto monta, cortar como desatar.^[12]
• 1709 – first record of the derivative montaje.^[2]
• 1728 – the military ordinances use montar a caballo, the first record of the riding sense.^[2][13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from French monter.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To get on top of something; to mount: Los niños se montaron en el muro.^[4][1]
2. To get on a horse or other mount, or into or onto a vehicle: Montó en la moto y se fue.^[4][17][1]
3. To ride a horse, also with a direct object: Mi hermana monta muy bien.^[4][1]
4. Of separate items in an account, to come to or amount to a total.^[4]
5. Of part of a thing, to overlap part of another.^[4]
6. To be of importance; to matter, as in tanto monta.^[4][13]
7. Of a male animal, to cover the female.^[4]
8. To assemble the parts of an apparatus or machine; figuratively, to put together: Montamos el armario en una hora.^[4][1]
9. (Spain, cooking) To whip egg white or cream until it is firm.^[4][1]
10. To set up a house with everything needed to live in it, or a business so that it can start working.^[4][1]
11. (theatre) To stage a play.^[4]
12. To set a precious stone (engastar).^[4]
13. To cock a firearm.^[4]

Word family

• montacargas
• montaje
• montador
• montado
• monto
• desmontar

Related words

• montura
• monte
• remontar
• Old French monter
• Latin mōns

Usage notes

The Academy's dictionaries also record a separate montar “to fine for letting animals into a wood”, which the 1884 edition derives from monte.^[14][4] The saying tanto monta “it is all the same” goes back to the financial sense.^[11][2]

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 g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 131
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. monte
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. montar
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. monter
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. *montare
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. montar
9. ^ 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. montar
10. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 382
11. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 762
12. ^ 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. 1146
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 600
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 716
15. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. montar
16. ^ 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. montar
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. montar