preguntar

Forms

preguntar (first-person singular present pregunto, first-person singular preterite pregunté, past participle preguntado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish preguntar, inherited from Vulgar Latin *praecūnctāre, an altered form of Latin percontor (“to question, interrogate”).^[2][3][4][1] The prefix per- was replaced by prae-, and the stem was influenced by cūnctor (“to delay, hesitate”).^[2][3][1] The form percunctārī, with ⟨u⟩, is found in the best manuscripts of Livy, in Festus and in glosses;^[2] Festus links it with a popular explanation, that someone who asks questions “goes through all things”.^[2]

The /ɡ/ of all the Ibero-Romance forms shows that they come from a form with an intervocalic /k/, that is from the form with ⟨prae-⟩; the ⟨per-⟩ of Portuguese perguntar and Galician perguntar is a later change, and older Portuguese had preguntar.^[2][5] Sardinian percontare keeps the classical vowel.^[2] Catalan preguntar is not found in the Middle Ages and is a loan from Spanish; the native verb was demanar.^[2]

The Latin verb is formed on contus (“boat pole”), so its first sense was “to sound the depth of the sea or a river”.^[2][3] From that it came to mean “to question”.^[2][3][6] The Latin noun comes from Ancient Greek κοντός (kontós, “pole”).^[7] Wiktionary considers the origin uncertain, naming also the verb for “to hesitate” and the root Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to ask”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy): Por el rey don Alfonso tómanse a preguntar “they set about asking after King Alfonso”.^[8][2][3] The sense is already “to ask”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The verb has been in general use in every period, with the sense “to ask, question” from the start.^[2] Covarrubias gave two Latin sources, percontari from the boatmen's pole and percunctari from per cuncta, citing Donatus.^[9] Autoridades defined it as questioning someone so that he tells what he knows, quoting the Partidas.^[10] The Academy's 1884 dictionary added the proverb Quien pregunta, no yerra “whoever asks does not go wrong”.^[11] The reflexive preguntarse means “to wonder”.^[4][1] In Bolivia preguntar en la coca is said of a diviner who reads someone's fortune in coca leaves, and in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico preguntarle al muerto si quiere misa means to accept an offer at once.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has preguntar.^[8][3]
• 1218–1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes, the first record known from an original.^[8]
• 1220–1250 – first record of the noun pregunta, in Berceo.^[3][2]
• 1256 – Alfonso X's Picatrix translation uses it.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija renders it by Latin quaero and interrogo.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin percontari or percunctari.^[9]
• 1737 – first record of preguntón “inquisitive”.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary records Quien pregunta, no yerra.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To ask, to question someone so that they say what they know: Le preguntó la hora a un policía.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To put something as a question to express doubt or for emphasis, when the answer seems impossible or absurd.^[4]
3. preguntar por: to ask after or about someone or something.^[2][15]
4. (reflexive) To wonder, to ask oneself: Me pregunto si vendrá.^[4][1]

Word family

• pregunta
• preguntón
• preguntador

Related words

• Latin percontor
• Portuguese perguntar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 635
3. ^ 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. preguntar
4. ^ a b c d e 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. preguntar
5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2543
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. percontor
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. preguntar
8. ^ 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. preguntar
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 354
11. ^ 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. 859
12. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. preguntar
13. ^ 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. preguntar
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 400
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. preguntar