penetrar

Forms

penetrar (first-person singular present penetro, first-person singular preterite penetré, past participle penetrado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin penetrō (“to put inside; to enter, penetrate”).^[2][3][1] The Oxford Latin Dictionary connects the verb with penes (“in the power of”), with the ending of intrō (“to enter”).^[4] De Vaan suggests it was formed to the adverb penitus (“from within, deeply”) on the model of the verb for “to enter” beside intus (“within”); both belong to penus (“food, provisions”), from Proto-Indo-European *pen-os (“food”).^[5] Gómez de Silva and Bénaben also take the adverb from the noun, in the sense “innermost part of the house”, the family of the household gods, the Penates.^[6][7] Covarrubias in 1611 already explained the verb as “to enter deep within”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the astrological Judizios de las estrellas of Alfonso X's court (1254–1260): corrompe se el ayre & penetra aquella quemazon “the air is corrupted and that burning penetrates”.^[9][10] The Alfonsine dictionary reads it as “to make itself felt with violence”.^[10] The BDELC dates the word only to the second quarter of the 15th century, and DICCA-XV reports the DCECH's date as 1440.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

Medical and poetic texts of the late 14th and early 15th centuries use the verb of water seeping through a vessel and of sight piercing the heavens.^[9] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 glosses Latin penetro as entrar adentro “to go inside”.^[11] Covarrubias adds the sense “to grasp what is hidden”, and calls a wound penetrante when it reaches a cavity.^[8] The Diccionario de Autoridades distinguishes entering a body through its pores, passing through it (as the sun through glass) and making one's way into a place despite obstacles.^[12] The Academy's 1843 edition added cold or shouts that make themselves felt, grief reaching the soul, and understanding someone's mind or a difficult matter.^[13] The DLE now also records the sense “to possess sexually”.^[2] Judeo-Spanish has penetrar and penetrarse “to study thoroughly”.^[14]

Timeline

• 1254–1260 – the Judizios de las estrellas uses penetra of a burning heat.^[9][10]
• 1376–1396 – Fernández de Heredia writes of a wind that penetraua the bodies of the people.^[9]
• c. 1440 – the date Corominas gives, with the derivatives penetrante and penetrativo.^[3][11]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin penetro.^[11]
• 1549 – the first record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records herida penetrante.^[8]
• 1843 – the Academy lists the senses of cold, grief and understanding.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To penetrate: of a body, to go into another, often intransitive or pronominal: La estaca penetró en el suelo.^[2][1]
2. To pass through a body: La luz del sol penetra el cristal.^[2][12]
3. To make one's way into a place, also figuratively: Las nuevas costumbres penetraron poco a poco en la región.^[2][17]
4. To possess sexually.^[2][18]
5. Of cold, shouts and the like, to be felt sharply by someone.^[2]
6. Of grief or another feeling, to reach the depths of the soul.^[2]
7. To fathom or understand someone's mind or a difficult matter.^[2][13]

Word family

• penetrable
• penetración
• penetrante
• penetrativo
• compenetrarse

Related words

• entrar
• Latin penetrō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. penetrar
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. penetrar
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. penetrō
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 536
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. penetrar
8. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1205
9. ^ 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. penetrar
10. ^ a b c 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. penetrar
11. ^ a b c d 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. penetrar
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 203
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 548
14. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. penetrar
15. ^ 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. penetrar
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 811
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. penetrar
18. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. penetrar