olvidar

Forms

olvidar (first-person singular present olvido, first-person singular preterite olvidé, past participle olvidado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote it olbidar and oluidar, beside the older form oblidar found in Berceo and the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[1][2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish olbidar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *oblītāre, a verb formed on oblītus, the past participle of classical oblīvīscor (“to forget”).^[4][5][1] The Vulgar Latin verb replaced the classical deponent with a new verb made from its participle.^[6][7] The modern form came about by metathesis of the older oblidar: the /b/ and the /l/ changed places.^[6][8][9]

The same Vulgar Latin verb is Romanian uita, Romansh amblidar, French oublier, Old Occitan oblidar and Catalan oblidar; Portuguese olvidar was taken from Spanish.^[10][1] In Catalan the reflexive construction with the preposition de is already found in Ramon Llull.^[7]

The origin of the Latin verb is uncertain.^[1] Wiktionary suggests ob- with the root of lēvis (“smooth”) and an inchoative suffix, so that the verb first meant “begin to wipe out”.^[1] The OLD compares linō (“to smear”), and Lewis and Short connected it with līvor (“a bluish colour”), as if the mind were darkened.^[11][12] Gómez de Silva and Bénaben derive the root from Indo-European *lei- (“slimy; to smear”), with the idea of something that has slipped or been wiped out of the mind.^[8][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), where the hero teases the moneylenders: ¡Ya don Rachel e Vidas, avédesme olbidado! “Ah, Raquel and Vidas, you have forgotten me!”.^[2][4] Berceo, in the Sacrificio de la misa, has the older form: oblidar la su sangne nós nunca la devemos “we must never forget his blood”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the two main senses: “to cease to keep something in the memory”, in the Lapidario, and “to cease to hold someone in affection”, in the Estoria de España, where the Goths are oluidados “neglected” by the emperor.^[13] Nebrija gave Latin obliviscor as its equivalent, and dedisco for forgetting what one has learned.^[14]

The Diccionario de Autoridades noted that the verb was mostly used reflexively, gave the sense “to stop loving”, and recorded the proverb Quien bien ama tarde olvida “he who loves well is slow to forget”.^[15] Salvá in 1846 recorded an obsolete causative sense “to make someone forget”, which the Academy kept as rare in 1884 and the DLE marks as disused.^[16][17][5]

In 1855 Baralt condemned as French several uses of olvidar, among them “to omit, neglect”.^[18] Román, in his dictionary of Chilean usage, answered that this sense is found in the classical authors and is genuinely Castilian.^[19] In modern Spanish the verb is often used in the third person with an indirect object for the person who forgets, as in se me olvidó “it slipped my mind”.^[20][5]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has olbidado (in a 14th-century copy).^[2][4]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has the older form oblidos (in a 13th-century copy).^[2]
• 1228–1246 – Berceo writes oblidar in the Sacrificio de la misa.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses olvidar for losing a memory.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin obliviscor as its equivalent.^[14]
• 1525 – the first record from the Americas, at Nombre de Dios.^[21]
• 1605 – the opening chapter of the Quijote: Don Quixote olvidó casi de todo punto el ejercicio de la caza.^[9]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the proverb Quien bien ama tarde olvida.^[15]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns the sense “to omit” as a Gallicism.^[18]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also intransitive) To forget: to stop keeping something or someone in the memory: Con los años olvidó el nombre de la calle.^[5][1]
2. (transitive) To leave out of account, to disregard: Olvidemos lo que pasó ayer.^[5][20]
3. (transitive) To fail to do something through carelessness: Olvidé apagar la luz.^[5][1]
4. (transitive, also reflexive) To leave something or someone behind by mistake: Olvidé las gafas en el tren.^[5][1]
5. (transitive) To stop loving or caring for someone or something: Pronto la olvidó.^[5][20]
6. (transitive, disused) To make someone forget something.^[5][1]
7. (reflexive, with de) To forget; to lose from memory, consideration or affection: Se olvidó de llamarme.^[5][1]
8. (reflexive, of a thing) To slip someone's mind: Se le olvidó la cartera.^[5][20][1]

Word family

• olvido
• olvidadizo
• olvidable
• olvidado
• inolvidable

Related words

• Latin oblīvīscor
• Catalan oblidar
• French oublier

Usage notes

The colloquial ¡olvídame! asks someone to stop insisting, and ¡olvídate! tells someone to give up all hope of something.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. olvidar
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. olvidar
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. olvidar
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. olvidar
6. ^ a b c Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. olvidar
7. ^ a b 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. 6, 16
8. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 505
9. ^ 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. 807
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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. olvidar
14. ^ a b 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. olvidar
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 36
16. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 759
18. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 479
19. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José
20. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. olvidar
21. ^ 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. olvidar