obligar

Forms

obligar (first-person singular present obligo, first-person singular preterite obligué, past participle obligado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin obligō (“to tie up; to bind by a contract or judgement; to force”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is made of ob- and ligō (“to bind, tie”).^[5][1][6] Spanish continues the simple verb as ligar, a semi-learned form whose inherited outcome in the 13th century was legar.^[2][3]

The same Latin verb gave Portuguese obrigar, Catalan obligar, Occitan obligar, French obliger and Italian obbligare.^[7][8] The simple verb goes back to Proto-Italic *-lig-ā- and perhaps to Proto-Indo-European *liǵ- (“to tie”), with Albanian lidh (“to tie”) as a cognate; de Vaan notes that it is attested only from Catullus, later than its compounds.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the BDELC date it to a document of 1221 in Menéndez Pidal's Documentos lingüísticos, with another of 1247.^[2][3] The DEMel lists an earlier me obligo in a document of 1162 from León and Castile.^[10] The CDH's earliest hit in a Spanish text is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), where a parish is answerable until all the money is paid por los quales fue obligada la collacion “for which the parish was bound”; its other early hits, of 1228–1236, are Latin charters with pignori obligare “to pledge”.^[11] The first sense is thus legal: to bind oneself or others to pay or to fulfil something.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's legal prose the verb means “to commit oneself to fulfil something”.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as to tie, bind, compel, move someone effectively to something even against his taste, and also as to win another's goodwill with favours or kindness, quoting a ballad: Persuadióla con halagos, / obligóla con cariños.^[13] Terreros adds that laws oblige to their observance.^[14] The Academy recorded the reflexive “to commit oneself, make oneself answerable” in 1817.^[15] Baralt (1855) noted that in the sense “to win someone over with favours” the verb was used mostly in the past tenses.^[16]

The 2001 Academy dictionary has the senses “to force a thing to obtain an effect” and, in law, “to subject property to the payment of debts”.^[17] In Bolivia and Chile obligar meant to drink from the same glass as another person, and in Bolivia and (now obsolescent) in Argentina, to invite someone to drink the same amount, often from the same glass.^[18][19]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has obligada.^[11]
• 1221 – the first record in the DCECH and the BDELC.^[2][3]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary uses it to gloss several Latin verbs, among them obiuro “to bind by oath”.^[20]
• 1525 – the first records from the Americas, in Mexico City: que yo… sea obligado de vos dar el título.^[21]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the senses “to compel” and “to win over with favours”.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the reflexive obligarse “to commit oneself”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology Latin obligare and the definition “to move and impel to do or fulfil something”.^[22]
• 1946 – Malaret records the drinking custom of Bolivia and Chile.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To compel or force someone to do something: La tormenta nos obligó a volver al hotel.^[4][23][1]
2. (transitive) To win someone's goodwill with favours or gifts; to oblige.^[4][23]
3. (transitive) To force a thing in order to obtain an effect: Si no la obligas, esta tapa no encaja.^[4][24]
4. (transitive, law) To subject property to the payment of debts or to other enforceable duties.^[4][23]
5. (reflexive) To commit oneself to do something: Se obligó a devolver el préstamo en un año.^[4][1]
6. (Bolivia, Argentina, obsolete) At a gathering, to invite someone to drink the same amount as oneself, often from the same glass.^[19][18]

Word family

• obligación
• obligado
• obligatorio
• desobligar

Related words

• ligar
• coligar
• Latin obligō
• English oblige

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 647
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ligar
4. ^ 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. obligar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. obligar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 373
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. obligar
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
12. ^ 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. obligar
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 5
14. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 686
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 607
16. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 470
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. obligar
18. ^ a b c Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 596
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
20. ^ 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. obligar
21. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 750
23. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
24. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial