nadar

Forms

nadar (first-person singular present nado, first-person singular preterite nadé, past participle nadado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish nadar, inherited from Latin natō (“to swim, float”).^[2][3][1] The Latin verb is a frequentative of nō (“to swim”).^[4][5][1] The simple verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- (“to swim, float”), and related words include Ancient Greek νήχω (nḗkhō, “to swim”).^[5][4][1]

The same verb is Portuguese nadar, Galician nadar, Asturian nadar, Catalan nedar and Occitan nadar, and it lives on in southern Italy and Sardinia.^[6][7][8][9] In Catalan the form with /a/ is that of the old texts in all regions and of the western and Valencian dialects today, while the form with /e/ is eastern and Balearic.^[10] Romanian înota, Italian nuotare and Old French noer instead go back to a form Vulgar Latin *notāre, whose ⟨o⟩ the REW leaves unexplained.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to 1220–1250.^[2][11] In the prose of Alfonso X the verb already has both its main senses: in the Estoria de España someone is helped de los pies & de las manos cuemo era mester pora nadar “with the feet and hands, as one needs to swim”, and in the Lapidario a stone rises from the sea and nada sobre las ondas “floats on the waves”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija about 1495 gives Latin no and nato for nadar.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as keeping oneself in the water and moving through it at will, which all animals do by nature except man, who has to learn it; by extension it is said of anything that floats on water or another liquid, and of a liquid that always rises above another, such as oil.^[14] The Academy's 1817 edition adds the figurative senses “to have plenty of something” and, of clothes or shoes, “to be far too loose”.^[15] These are still the four senses of the DLE.^[3]

In Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay nadarle a alguien means that a garment is too big for them, and in several Caribbean and Andean countries nadar en dos aguas is to act without committing oneself.^[16] In Andalusia the verb has also meant “to go about trading”.^[17] Alemany reports a transitive use “to bathe” in Colombia, which he calls a barbarism.^[18]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – the first record.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses nadar for a stone floating on the waves.^[12]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses it for swimming with hands and feet.^[12]
• 1490 – first record of the phrase a nado “swimming”, and nadador follows in 1495.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin no and nato.^[13]
• 1532 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[19]
• c. 1716 – first record of sobrenadar “to float on top”.^[2]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary adds the senses “to abound” and “to be too loose”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, from Latin natare.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To swim: to move through water by moving the body and limbs, without touching the bottom: Los niños aprendieron a nadar en el río.^[3][1]
2. (intransitive) Of a thing: to float in a liquid: Unas hojas secas nadaban en el estanque.^[3][21]
3. (intransitive) To have plenty of something, with en: Desde la herencia nadan en la abundancia.^[3][1]
4. (colloquial) Of a part of the body: to be lost inside clothes or shoes that are much too big: El niño nadaba dentro del abrigo de su padre.^[3][22]

Word family

• nadador
• sobrenadar

Related words

• natación
• natatorio
• Latin natō
• Portuguese nadar

Usage notes

Set phrases include nadar entre dos aguas “to sit on the fence” and nadar y guardar la ropa “to have it both ways”.^[21][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nadar
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. nadar
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4556
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. natāre
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2318
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. nadar
10. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 892
11. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 485
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. nadar
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 385
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 645
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 593
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. nadar
17. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 423
18. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1181
19. ^ 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. nadar
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 731
21. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nadar
22. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. nadar