poner

Forms

poner (first-person singular present pongo, first-person singular preterite puse, past participle puesto)^[1] The older future and conditional were porná and pornía, later replaced by pondrá and pondría.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pōnō (“to put, place”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin verb comes from *pozinō, a compound of the prefix po- (“off, away”) and sinō (“to let, put in place”).^[6][1] Its old perfect was that of the simple verb, and when the link was forgotten, a new perfect was formed from the past participle.^[6]

The verb survives in every Romance language: Portuguese pôr, Galician pór, Italian porre and Romanian pune.^[3][7][8] Gallo-Romance and Catalan restricted it to laying eggs and some other senses, as French pondre and Catalan pondre, and replaced it in general use with the descendants of mittō or pausō.^[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its past participle puesto is in the Glosas Silenses at the end of the 10th century.^[3][4] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the verb in the basic sense “put, place”: Carguen las arcas privado… ponedlas en vuestro salvo “let them load the chests at once… put them in safe keeping”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The sense “set”, of the sun or another heavenly body, is found from the Cid on and is now limited to Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan.^[3] “Lay eggs” must be as old as the language, though Corominas found no Castilian record before Nebrija.^[3] Spanish usually adds the object, poner huevos, but says gallina ponedera without it.^[3] Old senses now lost include “decree, resolve” in the Alexandre and “agree” in the Cid, the Conde Lucanor and Juan Ruiz.^[3]

Alfonso X's prose already uses it for arranging something for a purpose, for describing or explaining and for supposing (pongamos que…).^[12] Covarrubias in 1611 gives “bet”, poner la gallina el huevo, ponerse el sol and poner casa “set up house”.^[13] As ponerse with an adjective (ponerse furioso, ponerse enfermo) it has become almost an auxiliary meaning “become”.^[14] In Argentina ponérsele means “to seem (to someone)”, and Mexican póngale, the croupier's call to bet, was borrowed into Californian English as to pungle “to put down cash”.^[3]

Timeline

• End of the 10th century – the participle puesto in the Glosas Silenses.^[3][4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses poner “to place” and ponerse of the sun.^[3][10]
• 1208 – pusiemos pena “we laid down a penalty” in the Cortes of León.^[10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for placing an object.^[12]
• c. 1275 – the derivative poniente “west” in the Primera Crónica General.^[3][4]
• 1509 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records poner “to bet” and poner la gallina el huevo.^[13]
• 1737 – the Autoridades describes the irregular forms pongo, puse and the old future porná.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “from Latin ponĕre”.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To put, place: to set someone or something in a place.^[5][1]
2. (transitive) To arrange or prepare something for a purpose: poner la mesa “to lay the table”.^[5][1]
3. (transitive) To suppose, assume: Pongamos que llega a las diez.^[5]
4. (transitive) To bet a sum.^[5][13]
5. (transitive) To write something on paper: ¿Qué pone en la etiqueta?^[5][1]
6. (transitive, also intransitive) Of a bird or other egg-laying animal: to lay eggs.^[5][1]
7. (transitive) To set up, establish: Pusieron una tienda en el barrio.^[5]
8. (transitive) To stage a play or show a film: Esta noche ponen una película antigua.^[5][1]
9. (transitive) To switch on or play: Pon la radio.^[1]
10. (with an adjective; reflexive) To make or become: Se puso nervioso.^[1][14]
11. (reflexive) To put on clothing: Ponte el abrigo.^[1]
12. (reflexive) Of the sun or a star: to set.^[1][3]
13. (reflexive, with a + infinitive) To begin to do something: Se puso a llover.^[1]

Word family

• ponedero
• ponedor
• poniente
• puesto
• puesta
• ponerse

Related words

• anteponer
• aponer
• componer
• deponer
• descomponer
• disponer
• exponer
• imponer
• indisponer
• indispuesto
• postura
• posición
• Latin pōnō
• Portuguese pôr
• French pondre

Usage notes

Poner is irregular: present pongo, preterite puse, future pondré, imperative pon, past participle puesto.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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, 319
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 607
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. poner
5. ^ 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. poner
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ponere
9. ^ 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, 682
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
11. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. poner
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. poner
13. ^ 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. 1222
14. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
15. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
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. 848