proveer

Forms

proveer (first-person singular present proveo, first-person singular preterite proveí, past participle provisto or proveído)^[1] Old Spanish texts spell it proueer and proueher; the past participle was proveído before provisto.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prōvideō (“to foresee; to see to, provide for”).^[4][1][5][6] Corominas treats it under ver and dates it to Berceo.^[3][7] Vox calls it a 13th-century borrowing from Latin; it keeps the old form of the verb for “see”, veer, and so has two ⟨e⟩s.^[8][3]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese prover, Catalan proveir, French pourvoir and Italian provvedere.^[6][5] Nascentes derives the Portuguese verb through an older proveer.^[9]

The Latin verb is formed from prō- (“forward”) and videō (“to see”).^[10][1][11] The simple verb goes back to *widēō, from the root *weyd- (“to see, know”).^[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in Berceo's Vida de San Millán (c. 1230, known from an 18th-century copy): asmaron un consejo, de Dios fue proveído “they thought of a plan; it was ordained by God”.^[13] The Aragonese Vidal Mayor (c. 1250) has the sense “to provide for”: entendientes proueher al tiempo de la paz “intending to provide for the time of peace”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense “to see in advance” passed to prever, and proveer came to mean what follows from foresight: preparing or supplying what is needed.^[8][3] Alfonso X used it for supplying necessities and for conferring a benefice or an office.^[14] Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as preparing in good time what is needed, and named the proveedor, the officer who supplied the galleys or the army.^[15] Autoridades added the senses “to manage a business” and “to confer a post”.^[16]

The Academy's 1817 dictionary added the legal sense of a judge issuing an order, and its 1843 edition added the reflexive proveerse “to relieve oneself”.^[17][18] Corominas explains that reflexive as a shortening of a Low Latin phrase meaning “to provide for one's needs”, and notes that the verb tends to be felt as defective and replaced by provistar.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – proveído in Berceo's Vida de San Millán (in an 18th-century copy).^[13][3]
• c. 1250 – proueher in the Aragonese Vidal Mayor.^[13]
• 1256–1263 – Alfonso X's Primera Partida (in a late 13th-century copy).^[13]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary gives proveer for provideo and prospicio.^[19]
• 1525 – first record from the Americas, in Nombre de Dios.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it and the proveedor.^[15]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the legal sense.^[17]
• 1843 – the Academy adds proveerse “to relieve oneself”.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin providere.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To prepare or gather what is needed for a purpose.^[4]
2. (transitive, also pronominal) To supply or provide someone with what is needed: Nos proveyeron de mantas y agua.^[4][1]
3. (transitive) To handle or settle a matter.^[4][1]
4. (transitive) To confer a dignity, job or post; to fill a vacancy.^[4][22]
5. (law) Of a judge or court: to issue a ruling.^[4][1]
6. (pronominal) To relieve oneself, empty one's bowels.^[4]

Word family

• proveedor
• proveeduría
• proveimiento
• desproveer
• desprovisto

Related words

• providencia
• próvido
• ver
• prever
• provisión
• Latin provideo
• Portuguese prover

Usage notes

The verb has two past participles, provisto and proveído.^[1] Proveído was the usual one in Nebrija and the classical writers.^[1][3] The legal formula para mejor proveer names an order a judge issues before the sentence to obtain further evidence.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. proveer
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 713
4. ^ 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. proveer
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5244
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 613
8. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. proveer
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. prover
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. proveer
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ 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. proveer
14. ^ 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. proveer
15. ^ 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. 1233
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 414
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 711
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 594
19. ^ 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. proveer
20. ^ 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. proveer
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 874
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. proveer