prohibir

Forms

prohibir (first-person singular present prohíbo, first-person singular preterite prohibí, past participle prohibido)^[1] Sixteenth-century texts from the Americas also write proybir and prohebir.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin prohibeō (“to keep away; to hinder, forbid”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin source is itself formed from Latin prō- (“forward, away”) + habeō (“to have, hold”), properly “to hold off”.^[4][6][7] Its base goes back to Proto-Italic *χab-ē- and to *gʰh₁bʰ- (“to take”).^[8] Learned borrowings of other compounds of the same verb are cohibir, exhibir and inhibir.^[3]

Corominas notes that French prohiber is recorded from 1444, and that the old Spanish word for the sense was vedar.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest CDH hits are in legal texts of Aragon: armas prohibidas e vedadas “forbidden and banned weapons” in an ordinance of Barbastro (1396), and Prohibimos al dito notario “we forbid the said notary” in an ordinance given to Zaragoza in 1414.^[9] A hit of 1356 under the Fuero viejo de Castilla is a modern glossary entry, not a record of the word.^[9] The first Castilian texts are a Lapidario of about 1420 and Alfonso de la Torre's Visión deleitable (c. 1430–1440).^[9] The DCECH's first record is Fernández de Villegas in 1515; the Autoridades cites a law first issued in 1388, but Corominas doubts that its text is unmodernised.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The derivatives are older than Corominas's date for the verb: prohibitivo is in Alfonso de la Torre, and Alonso de Palencia uses prohibición.^[3][4] Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary of 1492 renders Latin prohibeo as vedar, and his Spanish–Latin Vocabulario lacks the verb.^[10][3] It was usual by the end of the 16th century, in the Inca Garcilaso and Covarrubias.^[3] The Autoridades defines it as “to forbid and prevent the use or doing of something”, the definition the Academy still gives.^[11][5] Corominas notes that the verb has since become popular, though in vulgar speech it competes with privar.^[3]

Timeline

• 1388 – a law of that year, cited by the Autoridades, has the verb, perhaps in a modernised text.^[3]
• 1396 – prohibidas in an ordinance of Barbastro.^[9]
• 1414 – Prohibimos in an ordinance given to Zaragoza.^[9]
• c. 1440 – first record of prohibitivo and prohibición.^[4]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin prohibeo as vedar.^[10]
• 1515 – Fernández de Villegas, the DCECH's first record.^[3]
• 1543 – the first record from the Americas, in Panama.^[2]
• 1570 – a record in Las Casas.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as “to forbid or hinder something”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To forbid, to prohibit: to bar the use or doing of something: Han prohibido aparcar en esta calle.^[5][1]
2. To forbid a food or drink as part of a medical treatment: El médico le prohibió la sal.^[13][14]

Word family

• prohibición
• prohibitivo
• prohibitorio

Related words

• vedar
• haber
• Latin prohibeō

Usage notes

In the forms stressed on the stem the i carries a written accent: prohíbo, prohíbe; the verb is conjugated like cohibir.^[1][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. prohebir
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 659
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prohibir
5. ^ a b c 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. prohibir
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 574
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. prohibir
10. ^ 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. prohibir
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 397
12. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1232
13. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. prohibir
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prohibir