papar

Forms

papar (first-person singular present papo, first-person singular preterite papé, past participle papado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pappāre (“to eat”), a word of children's speech beside pappa (“food”).^[2][3][1] The DLE and Moliner call the Latin verb Vulgar or Low Latin.^[3][4] Spanish papa “pap, soft food” is the noun of the same nursery word.^[2][5]

The same verb is Portuguese papar, Catalan papar, Italian pappare and Romanian păpa.^[6][7] Corominas notes that it is more widely used in Galician and Portuguese than anywhere else.^[2] Wiktionary considers the Latin verb perhaps imitative, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to feed”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb to 1570, in C. de las Casas, and quotes it next from the Pícara Justina (1605).^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades quotes that novel: le di la papilla que papó.^[8] In Galician-Portuguese the Cantigas of Alfonso X already ask a child queres papar?, “do you want to eat?”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as to eat soft food without chewing, and in familiar style to eat in general; it also used it for passing over something without heed, “to swallow” it.^[8] The phrase papar moscas (or viento), “to gape idly”, was also recorded there, with a poem of Quevedo.^[8] Today the verb is colloquial and survives mainly in papar moscas and in the exclamation ¡pápate esa!, “take that!”.^[3][4] The compounds papamoscas and papanatas are formed from it.^[7][1]

Timeline

• 1570 – first record, in C. de las Casas.^[2]
• 1580 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico, in a lullaby: ¡Tómala, llévala, pápala, coco!.^[9]
• 1605 – the Pícara Justina uses the verb.^[2][8]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records papar moscas.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, Latin papare.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To eat soft food, such as soup or pap, without chewing.^[3][1]
2. (transitive, colloquial) To eat.^[3][1]
3. (colloquial) In exclamations, to tell someone that they have got what they deserved or should take notice: ¡Pápate esa!^[3]

Word family

• papamoscas
• papanatas

Related words

• papa
• papeo
• papear
• papilla
• papo
• empapar

Usage notes

Papar moscas means “to stand gaping, idle or distracted”.^[8][4] Salvá (1846) also records an intransitive papar, “to become pope”, from papa “pope”.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 383
3. ^ 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. papar
4. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. papar
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. papa
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6214
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pappare
8. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 112
9. ^ 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. papar
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 786
11. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 797