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parejo

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word parejo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1220–1250 Berceo More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin *pariculus
Ultimate origin
Latin pār

Pronunciation

  • /paˈɾexo/, [paˈɾe.xo][1]

Forms

parejo (feminine pareja, masculine plural parejos, feminine plural parejas)[1] Old Spanish forms are parelo and pareio;[2] DEMel's earliest primary record is parelo in the Fuero de Valfermoso of 1189.[2] The Asturian form is pareyo.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pariculus (“alike, similar”), a diminutive of pār (“equal”).[4][5][1][6] The Late Latin word occurs once, in a text connected with the Salic law.[7] Spanish par in the sense “equal” was commonly replaced by this word.[4]

The Latin diminutive survives in all the Romance languages: Portuguese parelho, Asturian pareyu, Catalan parell, Occitan parelh, French pareil and Italian parecchio; its feminine gave Romanian păreche “pair”.[4][8][1] The origin of the Latin adjective is unclear: de Vaan considers several reconstructions, none satisfactory.[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds parejo first in Berceo.[4][6] In Alfonso X's astronomical books (1277) it glosses Arabic star names with pareios o yguales “paired or equal”.[10]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1737) defines the word as equal or similar to another thing and records the adverbial phrase por parejo or por un parejo “equally, in the same way”.[11] The sense “smooth, level” is in Alemany's dictionary of 1917.[12] The feminine pareja “pair, couple, partner” is recorded already in the Cid, earlier than the adjective.[4]

The Americas developed several senses: in Chile, Paraguay, Mexico, Argentina and elsewhere parejo is an adverb meaning “steadily, without a break”, in Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia also “a lot”; in Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua it means fair or impartial; and in Panama, Puerto Rico, Colombia and Venezuela the masculine noun is a dance partner.[13][14] In Puerto Rican cockfighting it is a bet equal to the previous one.[13][15] In the Canaries the noun “dance partner” was once used too.[16]

Timeline

  • 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo.[6][4]
  • 1277 – Alfonso X's astronomical books use pareios “equal”.[10]
  • 1533 – first record in the Americas, at Nombre de Dios.[17]
  • 1737 – Autoridades records the phrase por parejo.[11]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from par “equal”.[18]
  • 1917 – Alemany's dictionary has the sense “smooth, level”.[12]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. equal or similar; even, uniform: Los dos equipos estaban muy parejos.[5][19][1]
  2. smooth, level: un terreno parejo.[5][1]
  3. (Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua) Of a person or a law: fair, impartial.[13]

Adverb

  1. (Latin America) Steadily, continuously: Llovió parejo toda la semana.[13][20]
  2. (Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Panama) A lot, in quantity.[13]

Noun

  1. (Panama, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic) A male dance partner.[13][21]

Word family

  • pareja
  • emparejar
  • aparejar
  • desparejo
  • parejero

Usage notes

Por parejo or por un parejo means “equally, in the same way”.[5][11] In Spain the feminine noun pareja names a dance partner of either sex, while in Colombia and elsewhere the masculine parejo is used for a man.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. parejo
  3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4808
  4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 387
  5. ^ 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. parejo
  6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. par
  7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6241
  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. ^ 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. parejo
  11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 129
  12. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1266
  13. ^ a b c d e f Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. parejo
  14. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 624
  15. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. parejo
  16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. parejo
  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. parejo
  18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 791
  19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. parejo
  20. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 356
  21. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. parejo

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Parejo.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/parejo. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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