negar

Forms

negar (first-person singular present niego, first-person singular preterite negué, past participle negado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin negō (“to say no, deny, refuse”).^[2][3][1][4] The same Latin verb is Portuguese negar, Galician negar, Asturian negar, Catalan negar, Occitan negar, French nier and Italian negare.^[4][5] The Sardinian form neare came to mean “to accept”, originally “to say no out of politeness”.^[5] French replaced the regular ⟨ney-⟩ with ⟨ni-⟩ so as not to confuse the verb with noyer (“to drown”).^[6][1]

The OLD derives the Latin verb from the negative neque, and Wiktionary from ne (“not”), perhaps through nec.^[7][1] Gómez de Silva takes the negative back to Proto-Indo-European *ne (“not”).^[8] Lewis and Short explained it as the negative particle with the root of aiō (“to say yes”).^[9] Monlau rejected an older derivation from ⟨ne agere⟩ “not to do”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to 1044.^[2] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) a speaker tells King Alfonso: No lo podemos negar, ca dos espadas nos dio “we cannot deny it, for he gave us two swords”.^[11][12] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) tells how Sarah denied that she had laughed: Negó Sarra e dixo: Non ris.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already uses it for denying a statement, for not admitting that something exists, for refusing a request and for withholding things.^[13] Covarrubias adds “to fail a friend in his greatest need” and the phrase negar a pies juntillas “to deny flatly”.^[14] The Academy's dictionary of 1843 lists the further senses “to forsake what one once esteemed”, of a defendant “not to confess the crime”, “to disown”, “to conceal”, and the reflexive “to excuse oneself” and “to have oneself denied at home”.^[15] It also has the gospel phrase negarse a sí mismo “to deny oneself”.^[15]

The reflexive negarse a with an infinitive, “to refuse to”, is now one of the commonest uses.^[16][1] In Mexico no negar la cruz de su parroquia is said of someone whose behaviour shows their origin or character.^[17]

Timeline

• 1044 – the first record, according to Corominas.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy): No lo podemos negar.^[11]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar: Sarah denies that she laughed.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – the derivatives denegar and renegado appear.^[2]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's prose uses it for denying a doctrine.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin nego and inficias eo.^[18]
• 1531 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records negar a pies juntillas.^[14]
• 1843 – the Academy lists the reflexive senses and negarse a sí mismo.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin negare.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To deny: to say that something does not exist, is not true or is not as someone claims: Siempre negó conocer a aquel hombre.^[3][1]
2. To refuse to acknowledge something, not to admit its existence.^[3]
3. To refuse, not to grant what is asked: Le negaron el visado.^[3][16]
4. To forbid or prevent.^[3]
5. To forsake what one formerly esteemed and frequented.^[3]
6. (law) Of a defendant: not to confess a crime.^[3]
7. To disown or disdain something, not to recognise it as one's own.^[3]
8. To hide, conceal.^[3]
9. (reflexive, with a + infinitive) To refuse to do something: Se negó a firmar el contrato.^[3][1]
10. (reflexive) To have oneself denied at home, sending word that one is out.^[3]

Word family

• denegar
• renegar
• renegado
• reniego

Related words

• negación
• negativa
• negatividad
• negativo
• abnegar
• abnegación
• Latin nego

Usage notes

The verb has ie in its stressed forms (niego, niega, niegue), an irregularity Autoridades already noted.^[21][1] anegar “to flood, drown” comes separately from Latin enecare and is regular (se anegan), although it is sometimes conjugated like negar by mistake.^[22] Fifteenth-century texts of the Crown of Aragon also have a minor homograph negar “to drown”, taken from Catalan, which continues Latin necare “to kill”.^[23][24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. negar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. negar
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4576
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5876
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. nier
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. negō
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 484
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. nego
10. ^ Monlau, Pedro Felipe (1856), Diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana (ensayo), Madrid: Imprenta de la Sociedad Literaria y Tipográfica, p. 341
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. negar
12. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 361
13. ^ 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. negar
14. ^ 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. 1160
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 496
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. negar
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. negar
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 386
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. negar
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. 736
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 659
22. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1914), Apuntaciones críticas sobre el lenguaje bogotano, 6th ed., París: A. & R. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 122
23. ^ 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. negar2
24. ^ 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, 895