prestar

Forms

prestar (first-person singular present presto, first-person singular preterite presté, past participle prestado)^[1] The 13th-century Elena y María has the present prista, from a diphthongised priesta;^[1] Aragonese laws of about 1300 have priéstamo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish prestar, inherited from Latin praestō (“to stand out; to vouch for; to provide”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from prae- (“before”) and sto (“to stand”).^[3][1] Corominas follows the meaning from “to stand out” to “to vouch for”, then “to make available, provide”: Suetonius already wrote of providing someone with money.^[2] The condition that the thing be returned appears first in the Interpretationes of the Theodosian Code (about 438), where the verb replaces the code's commodo (“to lend”), and again in a text of 538 and in the Reichenau Glosses.^[2][1]

The verb is common to all the western Romance languages: Portuguese prestar and Catalan prestar have the same form.^[2][5][6] Because the stressed forms of the present have no diphthong, one might doubt that it is a popular word, but Corominas thinks the lack of diphthong may be a later analogy, since the old prista comes from priesta.^[2] Related words are presto, from Late Latin praestus (“ready, at hand”), and préstamo.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) already has the modern sense: the Cid's men tell the moneylenders to keep the chests and „prestalde de aver lo que sea guisado” “lend him as much money as is fitting”.^[2][7] The same poem uses the verb for “to be useful”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the old language prestar also meant “to be useful, profit”, close to the Latin “to stand out”; hence omne de prestar “a worthy man” in the Alexandre and Juan Ruiz, and agua de prestar “a large river”.^[2] Alfonso X's General estoria calls a man noble & de prestar.^[9] In the Apolonio it simply means “to give”.^[2] Covarrubias (1611) gave both “to lend” and “to be of use”.^[10] The Academy's 1817 edition records the uses with atención, paciencia and silencio (“to pay attention, have patience”).^[11]

Spanish has no separate verb for “to borrow”: the usual phrase is pedir prestado.^[2] Prestar itself in the sense “to borrow” is found in Timoneda's Patrañuelo and survives in popular use in Colombia, Mexico, Central America and Bolivia.^[2][12][1] emprestar, already in the Cid, is still used in Asturias and much of the Americas.^[2] In Asturian prestar has come to mean “to please”.^[13][14]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for “to lend” and “to be useful”.^[2]
• c. 1254 – the Judizios de las estrellas uses it for “to help”.^[9]
• 1272–1275 – the General estoria has de prestar “excellent”.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin credo for lending in general.^[15]
• 1525 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the senses “to lend” and “to be of use”.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy records prestar atención and prestar paciencia.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin praestare.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lend: to give something to someone to use for a time and then return: ¿Me prestas tu bicicleta?^[4][1]
2. To help, assist or contribute to something: prestar ayuda.^[4]
3. To give or impart: Las flores prestaban color a la mesa.^[4][18]
4. With atención, paciencia, silencio: to have or keep, as in prestar atención “to pay attention”.^[4][1]
5. (intransitive) To be useful or advantageous.^[4]
6. (intransitive) To stretch, give: La lana ha prestado con los lavados.^[4][18]
7. (reflexive) To offer oneself, agree to something: No me presto a esas trampas.^[4]
8. (reflexive) To give occasion for something: El texto se presta a confusiones.^[4]
9. (Mexico, Central America, Bolivia; nonstandard) To borrow.^[12][1]

Word family

• prestación
• préstamo
• prestante
• prestatario
• emprestar

Related words

• prestado
• prestamista
• presto
• Latin praesto
• Portuguese prestar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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, 646
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prestar
4. ^ 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. prestar
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5202
6. ^ 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, 800
7. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. prestar
8. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. prestar
9. ^ 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. prestar
10. ^ 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. 1228
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 700
12. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. prestar
13. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. prestar
14. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. prestar
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 400
16. ^ 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. prestar
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. 862
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prestar