querer

Forms

querer (first-person singular present quiero, first-person singular preterite quise, past participle querido)^[1] The Glosas Silenses spell the subjunctive quisieret and kisieret.^[2] The Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) has the first person quiro.^[3] The old past participle quisto (14th century) survives only in bienquisto and malquisto.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quaerō (“to seek, ask for”); Old Spanish querer has the same form.^[2][4][5][1] The change from “to seek, ask for” to “to want” is found only in Castilian, Portuguese querer, Galician querer and the Logudorese dialect of Sardinia.^[2][4] The other Romance languages kept volō (“to want”), as in Catalan voler and Occitan voler, and in them the Latin verb kept its old sense, as in French quérir, Italian chiedere and Romanian cere.^[2][6]

Corominas traces the change back to Vulgar Latin: with an infinitive the Latin verb could mean “to strive, wish” in some poets of the classical period, and this use became normal in the Christian writers, among them Lucifer of Cagliari.^[2] Castilian lost every trace of the verb for “to want” except Berceo's pronouns sivuelqual “whoever” and sivuelquando “at some time”.^[2] The sense “to love” is in Corominas's view short for the phrase with bien “to wish well”, and the BDELC suggests that it served to avoid a word that sounded too solemn for an intimate feeling.^[2][4]

The origin of the Latin verb is uncertain.^[7] Nussbaum, followed by de Vaan, derives it from a present of Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₂- (“to acquire”), comparing Ancient Greek πέπαμαι (pépamai, “to possess”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Silenses, of the second half of the 10th century, already use the verb in the sense of will: Latin penitentiam negat is explained by non quisieret dare “would not give”, and retinere voluerit by kisieret tenere “wanted to keep”.^[2] Corominas records it in charters from 1022 and in a kharja of the second half of the 11th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) still has examples close to “to seek”, querer el derecho (v. 3549), beside “to want” and already “to love”: „ca mucho las quería” “for he loved them dearly”, of the Cid's daughters.^[2][8] Since then the sense “to love” has been usual in every period.^[2] From the volitional verb Spanish made the old conjunction quier “or”, the adverb siquiera and the pronouns cualquiera, doquiera and cuandoquiera.^[2][4]

The prose of Alfonso X uses it for desire, love and will, and has the noun querer “desire”.^[9] The derivative querencia first meant “affection” (1220–1250), and later the inclination of an animal to return to the place where it was raised (1555).^[4] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 has a separate article for the noun, “affection, love”.^[10] Today the verb also means “to be about to happen” (quiere llover), in cards “to accept a bet”, and in Mexico me quise caer means “I nearly fell”.^[5][11] In western Canarian speech quererse is “to be courting”.^[12]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – the Glosas Silenses gloss Latin forms with quisieret and kisieret.^[2][4]
• 1022 – the first of many charters with the verb.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for “to seek”, “to want” and “to love”.^[2][8]
• 1220–1250 – querencia “affection” is recorded.^[4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the verb for desire and love.^[9]
• 1280 – the General estoria uses the noun querer “desire”.^[9]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin quaerendo, “because what we want, we go to seek”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the noun “affection, love”.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To want, wish for or desire something: Quiero un café.^[5][1]
2. To love, feel affection for someone or something: Te quiero mucho.^[5][1]
3. To intend, have the will to do something: Quería salir temprano.^[5][1]
4. To decide, determine.^[5]
5. To try, attempt.^[5]
6. Of a thing: to require, be suited to something else.^[5]
7. Of a person: to agree to someone else's wish.^[5]
8. (card games) To accept a bet.^[5]
9. To be about to happen: Parece que quiere nevar.^[5][11]

Noun

1. Affection, love: el querer de una madre.^[5][14][15]

Word family

• querencia
• querendón
• querido
• bienquerer
• malquerer
• malquerencia
• siquiera
• cualquiera
• quisto

Related words

• adquirir
• bienquisto
• inquirir
• malquisto
• requerir
• cuestión
• Latin quaerō
• Portuguese querer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 717
3. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. querer
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. querer
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. querer
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. quaerere
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. querer
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. querer
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 887
11. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 905
12. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. querer
13. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1241
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. querer