nombrar

Forms

nombrar (first-person singular present nombro, first-person singular preterite nombré, past participle nombrado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote nonbrar about as often as nombrar;^[2] nomrado also occurs.^[2] The older form nomnar is found in Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish nombrar, inherited from Latin nōmināre (“to name; to appoint”).^[5][6][1] An older Castilian form nomnar shows the stage before /mn/ became /mbr/: the Latin infinitive first gave this form, and it then became the modern one.^[3][4] In the Cid, Menéndez Pidal sees the influence of numerō (“to count”) beside the Latin source, since the verb there also means “to count”.^[7] The learned borrowing nominar is its doublet.^[1][4]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese nomear, Galician nomear, Asturian nomar, Catalan nomenar, French nommer, Italian nominare and Romanian număra.^[4][8][9]

The Latin verb is formed from nōmen (“name”) with the verb ending -ō.^[1][10] In Medieval Latin it already meant “to appoint”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has it for choosing men: Nonbrados son los que irán en el algara “Chosen are those who will go on the raid”, and also for counting them.^[12][7] Menéndez Pidal glosses the two senses as “to count, number” and “to choose, designate”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Razón de amor (c. 1205–1250) has the sense “to say the name of”: a field with so many herbs that the poet could not even name them.^[12] Alfonso X's prose has all the modern senses: to say the name, to mention, to appoint someone to an office, and also to enumerate.^[13]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) gave three senses, the second being an honourable mention, and the phrase no me le nombre, said by someone who does not want to be reminded of a person he hates or loves too much.^[14] The Academy kept the phrase in 1817 and 1843.^[15][16] In Puerto Rico the verb also means “to give a name to”, a sense the Tesoro PR treats as an anglicism after to name.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for choosing and counting men.^[12][7]
• c. 1205–1250 – the Razón de amor (copy of 1250–1260) has the sense “to name”.^[12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for saying a name and for mentioning.^[13]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria uses it for appointing priests.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin nomino and nuncupo.^[18]
• 1537 – first record from the Americas, in Peru, for appointing a ship's master.^[19]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the phrase no me le nombre.^[14]
• 1917 – Alemany gives the construction nombrar para un cargo.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To say the name of someone or something; to name, mention: En el discurso no nombró a su rival.^[6][1]
2. To mention someone or something in particular, usually as an honour.^[6]
3. To choose or appoint someone to an office or post: La nombraron directora del museo.^[6][21]
4. To give a name to a person, animal or thing; in Puerto Rico regarded as an anglicism.^[22][17]

Word family

• nombramiento
• nombrado
• nombradía

Related words

• nombre
• nominar
• renombre
• denominar
• Latin nōminō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. nombrar
3. ^ a b Cabrera, Ramón (1837), Diccionario de etimologías de la lengua castellana, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta de Marcos Bueno, p. s.v. nombrar
4. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. nombrar
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nombre
6. ^ 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. nombrar
7. ^ a b c d Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 361
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5950
9. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
12. ^ 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. nombrar
13. ^ 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. nombrar
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 676
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 601
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 500
17. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. nombrar
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. nombrar
20. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1200
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nombrar
22. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. nombrar