Etymology and origin of the Spanish word pujar
pujar1 push, strive
Etymology tree of pujar1
From the same root · pujar1
Pronunciation
- /puˈxaɾ/, [puˈxaɾ][1]
Forms
pujar (first-person singular present pujo, first-person singular preterite pujé, past participle pujado)[1]
Etymology
The verb meaning “push, strive” is inherited from Old Spanish puxar, inherited from Latin pulsō (“to push, strike, beat”).[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is a frequentative of pellō (“to drive, push”).[5][1] Corominas treats it together with empujar, which he derives from Late Latin impulsāre, a Late Latin verb.[2][3]
Menéndez Pidal proposed a base Vulgar Latin *pulsiāre, derived from the participle pulsus;[2] Corominas finds this possible but unproven, since no text or other Romance language confirms it, whereas French pousser and Old Occitan polsar certainly continue the Latin verb.[2] Following Zauner and Meyer-Lübke, he explains the ⟨x⟩ by a sound change parallel to that of ⟨-ult-⟩ in mucho and escuchar: the l after u became a glide, and the following s turned into the Old Spanish /ʃ/.[2]
The same verb is Portuguese puxar (“to pull, drag”).[2][6] The learned pulsar is its doublet.[1][6]
Earliest recorded meaning
A charter of sale of 1233 has the legal formula a quien sua uoz desta karta puxar “whoever presses the claim of this deed”.[7] Corominas cites the same formula from Leonese charters of 1240 and 1254, and Menéndez Pidal shows that it renders the Latin qui tuam vocem pulsaverit.[2][3][8]
Semantic evolution
Old Spanish puxar meant “to push” and “to press on in spite of obstacles”: Alonso de Palencia (1490) explains Latin ruere as puxar con todo el cuerpo, and González de Clavijo (1406–1412) writes of ships that could not pujar adelante against the wind.[2][9] With the change of Old Spanish /ʃ/ to /x/, it fell together in spelling with the pujar of auctions.[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1737) records the sense “to have difficulty in expressing oneself or in carrying something out”, and the Academy's dictionary of 1884 adds the colloquial “to make the faces of someone about to cry”.[9][3][10]
In Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Venezuela and Ecuador it means to let out a strained sound under great effort or pain, and in much of the region also to strain the muscles of the belly, as in defecating or giving birth.[11][12]
Timeline
- 1233 – a charter of sale uses puxar in a legal formula.[7]
- 1240 – Corominas's first record, in a Leonese charter.[2][3]
- 1251 – the Calila e Dimna has the compound empuxar.[2]
- 1406–1412 – González de Clavijo writes pujar adelante of ships held back by the wind.[9]
- 1490 – Alonso de Palencia explains Latin ruere with puxar.[2]
- 1737 – Autoridades records “to have difficulty in expressing oneself”.[9][3]
- 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds the sense of holding back tears.[10]
Meanings
Verb
- (transitive) To push on, strive to go forward or carry something on in spite of obstacles.[4][1]
- (intransitive) To struggle for words, be unable to come out with what one wants to say.[4][1]
- (intransitive) To hesitate, falter in doing something.[4][1]
- (intransitive, colloquial) To make the faces of someone about to burst into tears, or still making them after crying.[4]
- (intransitive, Central America, Cuba, Venezuela) To let out a strained grunt under great effort or pain: El cargador pujaba bajo el peso del costal.[4][11]
- (Latin America) To strain the belly muscles, especially in giving birth or defecating.[11][12]
Word family
- pujavante
pujar2 bid up
- Confidence
- Probable
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- c. 1140 Cantar de mio Cid, in a 14th-century copy
- Borrowed from
- Catalan pujar
- Ultimate origin
- Latin podium
Pronunciation
- /puˈxaɾ/, [puˈxaɾ][1]
Forms
pujar (first-person singular present pujo, first-person singular preterite pujé, past participle pujado)[1]
Etymology
The verb meaning “bid up” is borrowed from Catalan pujar (“to go up”), from Vulgar Latin *podiāre, a derivative of podium (“podium; raised ground”).[2][3][13][14] Corominas takes it as Catalan because of the outcome of the ⟨o⟩ and of the ⟨di⟩ group, and notes that in this sense the word belongs only to Catalan, Occitan and a few Italian dialects.[2] The DLE says only that it is derived from the Latin noun.[4]
A form closer to the native development, puyar, appears in Berceo and in Aragonese authors, and the Alexandre poem has poiar.[2] Corominas relates apoyar in its old sense of the breast filling with milk to the same Vulgar Latin verb, which is native in Catalan, and Occitan pojar is the Occitan form.[15][16]
Menéndez Pidal, who also kept apart the two Old Spanish verbs, one written with ⟨j⟩ and one with ⟨x⟩, derived this one from Vulgar Latin *pulleāre “to grow, sprout”, taking the growing of plants as its first sense.[8] Covarrubias had derived it from Italian poggiare.[9]
Earliest recorded meaning
The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) uses it for “to rise”: los montes son altos, las ramas pujan con las núes “the hills are high, the branches reach up to the clouds”.[7][8] Corominas dates the word from the end of the 13th century, in the General Estoria.[2][3]
Semantic evolution
From “to rise” the verb came to mean “to grow, increase” and “to surpass”: Juan Ruiz uses it, and Nebrija (c. 1495) has pujar sobrepujando.[2] The auction sense appears in the Aljamiado poem of Joseph, where the price of a slave is pushed up to his weight in silver, and in a document of Niebla of 1419;[2] Nebrija gives pujar en almoneda with Latin liceor.[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1737) puts “to rise, grow” first and quotes the Recopilación for raising the price of something sold or leased.[9]
The Academy's 1884 dictionary derived it from Latin podium.[10] The DLE now gives the auction sense as current and marks “to surpass” and “to rise” as obsolete.[4] Judeo-Spanish of the Levant and of Morocco keeps a verb meaning “to grow, increase”.[2]
Timeline
- c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy) uses it for “to rise”.[7]
- c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán has pujando “rising, improving”.[7][2]
- late 13th century – the General Estoria;[2][3] Corominas's first record.[2][3]
- 1419 – a document of Niebla has the auction sense.[2]
- c. 1495 – Nebrija gives pujar en almoneda and the noun puja.[2]
- 1538 – the first record from the Americas, a bid in Buenos Aires.[17]
- 1737 – Autoridades records the senses “to rise” and “to raise the price”.[9]
Meanings
Verb
- (transitive) Of a bidder, to raise the price offered for something at an auction (subasta); to bid: Dos coleccionistas pujaron por el mismo cuadro.[4][1]
- (obsolete) To surpass, outdo.[4]
- (obsolete) To rise, go up.[4][9]
Word family
- puja
- pujador
Related words
- empujar
- pulsar
- sobrepujar
- repujar
- pujante
- apoyar
- podio
- Catalan pujar
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 582
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. empujar
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. pujar
- ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5274
- ^ 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. pujar
- ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. puiar
- ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 427
- ^ 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. 878
- ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pujar
- ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
- ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pujar 2
- ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
- ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 301
- ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. apoyar
- ^ 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. pujar
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Pujar.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/pujar. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.
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