predicar

Forms

predicar (first-person singular present predico, first-person singular preterite prediqué, past participle predicado)^[1] Old Spanish also had pedricar, predigar and preigar beside predicar.^[2][3][4] Pedricar was still written in the Americas in the 16th century.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praedicō (“to proclaim publicly”), a learned word, already found in the Glosas Silenses of the 10th century.^[6][7][8][1] García de Diego notes that Old Spanish also had a more popular form predigar, while the standard form is learned.^[4]

This verb is formed from Latin prae- (“before, in front”) + dicō (“to proclaim solemnly, dedicate”), the durative counterpart of dīcō (“to say”).^[9][7][1] In classical Latin it meant “to proclaim, publish, praise”;^[10][11][12] Church Latin gave it the sense “to teach a doctrine, preach the gospel”, found in Tertullian.^[10][11][12] De Vaan traces the root of the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show”).^[13] Latin also had a separate praedīcō (“to say beforehand”), which gave predecir.^[14][12]

The popular outcomes of the same Latin verb are Portuguese pregar, Old Occitan prezicar, French prêcher and Italian predicare; it was also borrowed as German predigen.^[15][10] Nascentes traces the Portuguese verb through older predegar and preegar.^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas records the word first in the Glosas Silenses and then in Berceo.^[6][7] The earliest hit in the CDH is the Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211, in a copy of the first quarter of the 13th century): en aquella sazon predicaua Jonas el propheta en Niniue, “at that time Jonah the prophet was preaching in Nineveh”.^[17] The sense is the religious one, to proclaim God's word.^[17]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses it for publishing or making known, for preaching a sermon and for admonishing someone.^[3] Nebrija's Vocabulario gives two entries, “to divulge” and “to give a sermon”.^[18][19] Covarrubias in 1611 says that commonly it means declaring the word of God and his Gospel from the pulpit.^[20]

The Diccionario de Autoridades gives the senses “to make public and plain”, “to preach” and, by extension, “to reprove someone for a vice or fault”.^[21] The Academy's 1843 edition adds a logical sense, said of a thing affirmed or denied of another, and the proverb bien predica quien bien vive “he preaches well who lives well”; the 1884 edition adds the colloquial sense of admonishing someone to persuade them.^[22][23] The modern dictionary keeps all these, with the grammatical and philosophical sense “to say something of a subject” and the rare sense “to praise excessively”.^[8]

Timeline

• 10th century – first recorded in the Glosas Silenses.^[6][7]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum has predicaua “was preaching”.^[17]
• 1220–1250 – first records of predicación and predicador.^[7]
• c. 1254 – Alfonso X's prose uses it for delivering a sermon.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario gives “to divulge” and “to give a sermon”.^[18][19]
• 1532 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[5]
• 1605 – first record of the noun prédica (the BDELC gives 1737).^[6][7]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as declaring the word of God from the pulpit.^[20]
• 1843 – the Academy records the logical sense and the proverb bien predica quien bien vive.^[22]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make something public, make it plain.^[8]
2. To preach, deliver a sermon; also to preach a doctrine: El fraile predicó la paciencia a los vecinos.^[8][1][24]
3. To reprove someone severely for a fault.^[8]
4. (colloquial) To lecture or admonish someone in order to persuade them.^[8]
5. (philosophy, grammar) To predicate, say something of a subject.^[8][25]
6. (rare) To praise someone excessively.^[8]

Word family

• predicación
• predicador
• predicado
• predicamento
• predicante
• prédica

Related words

• predecir
• dedicar
• decir
• Latin praedicō
• Portuguese pregar

Usage notes

Proverbs and phrases include bien predica quien bien vive, “he preaches well who lives well”, and predicar en desierto, “to preach in the desert”, that is, to no one listening, found in the Quijote.^[23][26] Moliner also lists predicar con el ejemplo, “to lead by example”.^[24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. predicar
3. ^ 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. predicar
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. praiedicare
5. ^ a b 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. pedricar
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 434
7. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. predicar
8. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. predicar
9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. predicar
10. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. prêcher
11. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
12. ^ a b c 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. 183
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6718
16. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pregar
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. predicar
18. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 400
19. ^ a b 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. predicar
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. 1226
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 351
22. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 583
23. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 858
24. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. predicar
25. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. predicar
26. ^ 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. s.v. predicar