pagar

Forms

pagar (first-person singular present pago, first-person singular preterite pagué, past participle pagado or (Uruguay) pago)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pācō (“to pacify, subdue”), a verb formed on pāx (“peace”).^[2][3][4][1] Old Spanish pagar already has this form in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][5] In classical Latin the verb meant only “to pacify, subdue”; the sense “to appease, calm” appears in late Latin, in Claudian.^[2] In medieval charters Medieval Latin pācō is used for reconciling parties, settling a dispute, satisfying a creditor and paying a debt.^[6] Bénaben explains the shift by the idea that the satisfaction owed to someone could be given in money.^[7]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese pagar, Galician pagar, Catalan pagar, French payer and Italian pagare.^[8][9][1] The oldest sense survives in Romanian împăca (“to reconcile”), and the earliest French texts still use paier for “to make peace”.^[2][9] Otherwise all the Romance languages show from the start the sense “to content, satisfy”, from which came “to satisfy a creditor” and “to pay a sum”.^[2]

The noun goes back to *pāk- (“agreement, peace”) and *peh₂ḱ- (“agreement”).^[10] Wiktionary, citing de Vaan, reports Meiser's view that the verb continues an old root aorist of the same root, glossed “to join, fasten”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the verb is mostly reflexive and means “to be content, satisfied”: „Pagós mio Cid e todos los otros” “my Cid and all the others were satisfied”.^[5][11] The same poem already uses it for satisfying a debt and for paying a sum, which can be introduced with en or de (pagar de heredades “to pay in lands”).^[2][11] The first hit in a text known from its own time is in the Cortes of León of 1208, where a fine of a hundred maravedís is to be „pagados” to the king and to the injured party.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to please, satisfy” was common in Old Spanish, both transitive and reflexive (pagarse de “to be pleased with”), in Berceo, the Libro de Alexandre and Juan Ruiz.^[2] The original Latin meaning still shows in the 13th century in mar pagada “calm sea”, with tiempo pagado and ondas pagadas in the Libro de Apolonio, always said of the sea.^[2] The pronominal pagarse “to grow fond of; to take pride in” is still in the Academy's dictionary.^[4][12]

Autoridades defined the verb as giving someone what is owed, and added two senses that the Academy still lists: of imported goods, to be liable to duties, and figuratively, to pay for a crime or fault by the punishment it deserves.^[13][13][4] The 1884 edition added the sense of returning affection or a kindness, the reflexive “to become fond of”, and the etymology from pacare “to appease, calm, satisfy”.^[12] The proverb amor con amor se paga “love is repaid with love” is cited by Baralt.^[14][1]

In Panama and Colombia the verb is also intransitive, “to be worth it”, and in the Andes of Peru and Bolivia it means to make offerings to the Pachamama and other divinities for protection.^[15][1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses the verb for “to satisfy, content” and for paying a debt.^[2][3][11]
• 1208 – the Cortes of León, the first record in a text that survives from its own time.^[5]
• 1220–1250 – the noun paga is first recorded, in Berceo.^[3][2]
• 1251 – the earliest record in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[16]
• 1335 – the short participle pago “paid” in Juan Ruiz.^[3][2]
• 1495 – Nebrija records the noun pago “payment”.^[3][2]
• 1525 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “to pay, to be punished”.^[18]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines the payment of a debt and of duties, and the figurative sense of paying for a crime.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin pacare.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pay: to give someone the money or other thing that is owed to them: Todavía no me ha pagado el alquiler.^[4][1]
2. Of goods brought into a place, to be liable to duties.^[4]
3. To pay for a crime or fault by suffering the punishment for it: Tarde o temprano pagará lo que hizo.^[4][13]
4. To return affection or a favour: amor con amor se paga.^[4][1]
5. (pronominal) To become fond of; to take pride in something.^[4]
6. (intransitive) To be worthwhile, to pay off.^[1][15]
7. (Peru, Bolivia) To make offerings to the Pachamama and other divinities.^[15]

Word family

• paga
• pagable
• pagadero
• pagador
• pagaré
• despagar
• pago
• apagar
• pagaduría
• sobrepaga

Related words

• paz
• pacato
• Latin pax
• Portuguese pagar

Usage notes

In Argentina and other parts of Latin America, and in popular speech in Salamanca, Zamora and the Basque Country, the short participle pago is used for pagado “paid”.^[2] Wiktionary records pago as a past participle in Uruguay.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 337
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pagar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. pagar
5. ^ 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. pagar
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. pacare
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. pagar
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4730
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. pacāre
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. pāx
11. ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 182
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 773
13. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 77
14. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 485
15. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pagar
16. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. pagar
17. ^ 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. pagar
18. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 183