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perder

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word perder

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1140 Cantar de mio Cid More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin perdo via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Latin do
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin perdō
French perdre
Italian perdere
Spanish perder
From the same root
Latin dēperdō ← perdō
Latin disperdō ← perdō
Latin perditiō ← perdō
Latin perditor ← perdō
Latin perditus ← perdō
Spanish perdición ← perdō
French perdu ← perdre

Pronunciation

  • /peɾˈdeɾ/, [peɾˈð̞eɾ][1]

Forms

perder (first-person singular present pierdo, first-person singular preterite perdí, past participle perdido)[1] The stem takes ie under stress (pierdo, pierdes, pierda), an irregularity Autoridades already noted.[2][1] The Cid has the future without syncope (perderedes), while Berceo has the syncopated perdremos.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish perder, inherited from Latin perdō (“to destroy; to lose”).[5][6][7][1] The Latin verb is formed per- (“through, completely”) and dō (“to give”), with the original sense “to give away completely”.[5][6][8][9]

The word is common to all the Romance languages: Portuguese perder, Galician perder, Catalan perdre, Occitan perdre, French perdre, Italian perdere and Romanian pierde.[5][10][1] English perdition is a cognate.[1]

The noun pérdida is a semi-learned descendant of perdita, the feminine past participle of the Latin verb, already used as a noun by Avitus.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb appears from the start of the language, in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), where the king's order threatens whoever gives the hero lodging that he perderié los averes e más los ojos de la cara, “would lose his goods and the eyes in his face as well”.[11][5][6] The Cid uses it for losing something of value, in the phrase perder el cuerpo “to die”, and for suffering a loss.[3] The first hit in a document of its own date is in the Cortes of León of 1208.[11]

Semantic evolution

Berceo already used perder for wasting as well as losing.[4] Alfonso X's prose has the senses “to cease to have, not find”, “to waste”, “not to obtain what one hopes for” and “to lose a game or battle”.[12] Covarrubias in 1611 recorded ir perdido “to go astray”, hacerse perdedizo “to lose on purpose” and perdulario, a vulgar term for a lost soul.[13] Autoridades (1737) defined the verb at length, from ceasing to own something useful to wasting and failing to find.[2] The 19th-century dictionaries also record the military sense, of an army that loses men or a position, and the loss of esteem.[14][15]

Newer senses include a container letting its contents escape (esta rueda pierde aire) and a fabric losing its colour in the wash.[7] In Andalusia it also meant to dishonour a woman.[16]

Timeline

  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses the verb.[11][5][6]
  • c. 1140 – the noun pérdida appears in the Cid.[5][6]
  • 1208 – the Cortes of León, the first hit in a contemporary document.[11]
  • 1220–1250 – the derivative perdición.[6]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's prose records the main senses.[12]
  • 1505 – desperdicio appears in Pedro de Alcalá.[5][6]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records ir perdido and perdulario.[13]
  • 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes the diphthong ie in some forms.[2]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin perdere.[17]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lose: to stop having, or be unable to find, something one had: Perdí las gafas en el tren.[7][1]
  2. To lose someone through death: Perdió a su madre muy joven.[7][1]
  3. To waste: No pierdas el tiempo.[7][1]
  4. To fail to get what one hopes for or loves; to miss: Perdimos el autobús.[7][1]
  5. To spoil or damage a thing; to ruin someone in honour or fortune.[7]
  6. To be defeated, not to win a game, battle, examination or lawsuit: El equipo perdió el partido.[7][1]
  7. Of a container, to let its contents escape little by little.[7]
  8. To suffer damage or decrease; to fall in others' esteem.[7]
  9. To fail in an obligation, as in perder el respeto.[7]
  10. (intransitive) Of a fabric, to lose colour in the wash; to get worse in looks or health.[7]
  11. (reflexive) To get lost, to lose one's way.[7][1]

Word family

Usage notes

Echar a perder “to spoil, ruin” is already in the Quijote.[18][1] Llevar las de perder means “to be at a disadvantage”.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 213
  3. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 386
  4. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 577
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 488
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. perder
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. perder
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. perder
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6403
  11. ^ 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. perder
  12. ^ 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. perder
  13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1206
  14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 550
  15. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 593
  16. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 472
  17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 814
  18. ^ 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. 858

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Perder.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/perder. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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