perecer

Forms

perecer (first-person singular present perezco, first-person singular preterite perecí, past participle perecido)^[1] Old Spanish texts write it pereçer, peresçer and perecer, with forms such as perescan and peresçido.^[2] The simple verb perir, of the same meaning, is found in Old Spanish from the early 13th century.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish peresçer, an inchoative formed from Old Spanish perir + -ecer on the older verb of the same meaning.^[5][1][6][7] Old Spanish perir is from Latin perīre (“to pass away, perish”), made of per- and īre (“to go”), properly “to go badly, to go to ruin”.^[5][8][1]

The DLE and Moliner derive it instead from a Vulgar Latin inchoative *perescĕre, and García de Diego sets up a form *periscere, from which he also derives the Portuguese verb and Catalan pereixer.^[9][10][11] Cunha and Nascentes likewise take Portuguese perecer for a Latin inchoative of the verb, while Houaiss considers that it may come from Spanish.^[12][13][14]

The Latin verb itself survives in Italian perire, French périr, Catalan perir and Romanian pieri.^[15][16] The simple Latin verb goes back to *h₁ei- (“to go”).^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215, in a 14th-century copy), where the devil hoped that Mary would drown: qu'ella pereçiesse en la mar “that she should perish at sea”.^[18][2] The Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) applies it to livestock that die of hunger or thirst.^[18] Corominas dates it 1220–1250.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose the verb is used of ships wrecked on rocks and of spiritual ruin, the two senses that the dictionaries still give.^[19] Covarrubias (1611) glossed it with Latin perire and recorded perecedero “perishable” and perecido de sed “dying of thirst”.^[20] Autoridades added the sense of suffering some harm or passion to the extreme, as in pereciendo de sed, and the moral sense of eternal damnation.^[21]

The Academy's 1817 edition added “to long for” and “to be in extreme poverty”; in 1843 it listed the longing sense under the pronominal perecerse, together with the proverb el que no parece, perece “he who does not show up, loses out”.^[22][23] Moliner notes that perecerse de risa or de envidia and perecerse por “to long for” now sound popular, and Wiktionary marks the sense of longing as dated and literary.^[10][1] In current use the verb chiefly means to die in an accident, a disaster or by violence.^[10][24]

Timeline

• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (in a 14th-century copy) has pereçiesse.^[18][2]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita uses it of livestock dying of hunger or thirst.^[18]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of ships that founder on the rocks.^[19]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija renders it with Latin pereo and depereo.^[25]
• 1536 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo, of people perishing of hunger.^[26]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records perecedero.^[20]
• 1843 – the Academy lists the pronominal perecerse “to long for”.^[23]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. perire”.^[27]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To come to an end, cease to exist; especially of people, to perish, die, often in an accident or by violence: Tres marineros perecieron en el temporal.^{[9][24][10][1]}
2. (intransitive) To suffer great harm, hardship or distress.^[9]
3. (intransitive) To suffer spiritual ruin, especially eternal damnation.^[9][10]
4. (intransitive) To live in extreme poverty, lacking the necessities of life.^[9][10]
5. (pronominal, with por) To long for something: Mi hermano se perecía por conocer Roma.^[9][10][1]
6. (pronominal, with de) To be overcome by a feeling or passion, as in perecerse de risa.^[9][10]

Word family

• perecedero

Related words

• ir
• Latin pereo
• Portuguese perecer

Usage notes

It is conjugated like agradecer: perezco, perezca.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. perecer
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. perir
4. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. perecer
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. perecer
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. perecer
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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. perecer
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. perecer
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4949
12. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2537
13. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. perecer
14. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. perecer
15. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. perire
16. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. perir
17. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
18. ^ 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. perecer
19. ^ 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. perecer
20. ^ 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. 1207
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 218
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 661
23. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 551
24. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. perecer
25. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 396
26. ^ 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. perecer
27. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 815