parir

Forms

parir (first-person singular present paro, first-person singular preterite parí, past participle parido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish parir, inherited from Latin pariō (“to give birth; to produce, procure”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas notes that the verb has been in general use at all periods.^[2]

It survives only in the three Hispanic Romance languages, in Pyrenean Gascon and in some Rhaetian and northern Italian dialects: Portuguese parir, Galician parir, Asturian parir and Catalan parir.^[2][5][6] The Portuguese verb is recorded from the 13th century, and the Catalan one from the earliest literary texts, though writers such as Muntaner and Llull preferred a more dignified synonym.^[7][8] The OLD records an archaic infinitive in -ire in Ennius and Plautus, which Houaiss cites beside the usual infinitive in -ere.^[9][7]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *perh₃- (“to provide”);^[10][1] Wiktionary glosses the root “to produce, beget” and compares Ancient Greek ἔπορον (époron, “I furnished, granted”).^[10][1] Its Latin family includes parēns (“parent”), partus (“birth”) and, in de Vaan's view, perītus (“experienced”) and reperiō (“to find”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb from the origins of the language: the Glosas Silenses of the end of the 10th century and the Cantar de mio Cid, which has nos parió “bore us” (v. 2595).^[2][3][11] In the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) a birth is told: Cumplieronse los dias que ovo a parir, que emellizos salieron de so vientre “the days were fulfilled when she was to give birth, and twins came out of her womb”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the three senses that the dictionaries list until today: to give birth, of a woman or a female animal; to lay eggs, of birds; and figuratively to produce or cause, in the Estoria de España: esta mala creencia que pario la nesciedat “this false belief, which ignorance gave birth to”.^[13] Autoridades gave the same three senses, citing Fray Luis de Granada and Quevedo for the figurative use.^[14] The Academy's dictionaries of 1817 and 1843 add “to explain one's thoughts well and aptly”, the phrase parir a medias “to help each other in a hard task” and poner a parir “to press someone hard to make him do something”.^[15][16] In current colloquial use poner a parir a alguien means to criticise someone harshly.^[17][18]

Moliner notes that polite speech replaces parir with dar a luz when speaking of women, though the verb is usual in familiar and medical language.^[17] Román, writing in Chile, considered it a gross word to use of women, and listed the euphemisms used in its place.^[19] Old Catalan, too, used the verb mostly of animals, and Nascentes says the Portuguese verb is now applied to animals.^[8][20] In the Caribbean, Panama and Venezuela parir also means “to bear fruit” of a plant, and in the Canaries it is said of the banana plant putting out its flower bud.^[21][22]

Timeline

• c. 975–1000 – the Glosas Silenses.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy): nos parió.^[2][11]
• 1220–1250 – the derivative parición and the noun parto are first recorded.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of women in labour and of birds laying.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has the adjective parida “who has just given birth”.^[3][2]
• 1532 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[23]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives parida, paridera and partera with the verb.^[24]
• 1817 – the Academy records the phrase poner a parir.^[15]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the colloquial exclamation ¡acabe usted de parir!, said to someone slow to come out with what he means.^[25]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, from Latin parĕre, and labels the verb intransitive, also used transitively.^[26]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of a female mammal: to give birth, to bear young; also transitive: La yegua parió un potro.^[4][1]
2. To lay eggs (aovar).^[4][17]
3. Of a thing: to produce or give rise to another.^[4]
4. To express clearly and aptly what one thinks.^[4][1]
5. (colloquial) To produce or create something with effort: Tardó un año en parir la novela.^[4][1]
6. (Caribbean, Panama, Venezuela, rural) Of a plant: to bear fruit.^[21][27]

Word family

• parición
• parida
• paridera
• paridora
• malparir

Related words

• parto
• pariente
• parturienta
• repertorio
• Latin pariō
• Portuguese parir

Usage notes

Set phrases include poner a parir a alguien “to criticise someone harshly” and parir a medias “to share a difficult task”.^[17][4] The insults and exclamations built on la madre que te parió go back at least to the Quijote.^[28][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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, 403
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. parir
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. parir
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4804
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. parĕre
7. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. parir
8. ^ 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, 291
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. parir
12. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. parir
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. parir
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 640
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 533
17. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. parir
18. ^ 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. 535
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, p. 141
20. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. parir
21. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. parir
22. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. parir
23. ^ 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. parir
24. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1195
25. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 575
26. ^ 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
27. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. parir
28. ^ 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. 833