prometer

Forms

prometer (first-person singular present prometo, first-person singular preterite prometí, past participle prometido)^[1] Old Spanish forms include prometo, prometemos, prometió and the old future prometrien.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish prometer, inherited from Latin prōmittō (“to send forth; to promise”).^[1][4][5] Corominas dates it to the second half of the 10th century.^[6]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese prometer, Catalan prometre, French promettre and Italian promettere.^[7][5]

The Latin verb is formed from prō- (“forward”) and mittō (“to let go, send”).^[8][9] Its first sense in Latin was “to send forth, let loose”, and in Plautus and later authors it also meant “to undertake to give or do, to promise”.^[8] De Vaan explains the simple verb from an original sense “to exchange”, which became “to give, bestow” and then “to let go, send”.^[10] Wiktionary traces it, through Proto-Italic *meitō, to Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to exchange, remove”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas puts the first record in the second half of the 10th century.^[6] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has it in the full sense “to promise, to vow”: „A Dios lo prometo, a aquel que está en alto” “I promise it to God, to Him who is on high”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose prometer means “to bind oneself to do or give something”, “to vow oneself to God”, “to promise each other in marriage” (Aeneas and Dido promise to take each other as husband and wife) and “to give signs of”, as a planet fulfils what it promises at a birth.^[3] Berceo already uses the pairing of promising and giving: „prometer e non dar”.^[11]

The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as offering firmly to do or give something and also as “to assert, assure”, with a quotation from the Partidas on prelates who must not promise benefices before they fall vacant.^[13] The Academy's 1884 dictionary added the intransitive sense “to show early promise” (este niño promete) and the colloquial phrase prometérselas felices “to have high hopes on little ground”.^[14] Today the intransitive verb is also used of things that show qualities that may make them succeed.^[4] The participle prometido became a noun for a person engaged to be married, and promesa is an old participle of the verb.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – first record, according to Corominas.^[6]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid: „A Dios lo prometo”.^[11][12]
• 1220–1250 – first record of the noun promesa, an old participle of the verb.^[6]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of those who promised to keep chastity.^[3][11]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's prose uses the reflexive for a mutual promise of marriage.^[3]
• 1513 – Nebrija's Vocabulario gives Latin promitto and polliceor.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy records the intransitive este niño promete.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To promise: to bind oneself to do, say or give something: Me prometió que vendría el lunes.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To assure someone that what one says is true.^[4]
3. (transitive) To give signs that something will happen: El cielo promete lluvia.^[4]
4. (intransitive) To show qualities that may lead to success: Este joven pintor promete.^[4][16]
5. (reflexive) To expect something or be confident of getting it.^[4]
6. (reflexive) To dedicate oneself, out of devotion or gratitude, to the service of God or the saints.^[4][3]
7. (reflexive) To become engaged, to give each other a promise of marriage.^[4][14]

Word family

• prometido
• promesa
• prometedor

Related words

• meter
• promisión
• comprometer
• Latin prōmittō

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. prometer
3. ^ a b c d e 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. prometer
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. prometer
5. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5232
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. meter
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. promittere
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. prōmittō
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 574
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. mittō
11. ^ 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. prometer
12. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 402
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 399
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 870
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 401
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prometer