recitar

Forms

recitar (first-person singular present recito, first-person singular preterite recité, past participle recitado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin recitō (“to read aloud; to cite; to say from memory”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“again”) and citō (“to set in motion, summon”), the frequentative of cieō (“to move, stir up”).^[2][5][1] De Vaan lists the frequentative among the derivatives of the simple verb, and Wiktionary traces the simple verb to Proto-Indo-European *keyh₂- (“to move”).^[6][1]

The same Latin verb, inherited, gave rezar, Old Spanish reztar, and Portuguese rezar and Catalan resar.^[7][1] The present word is its learned doublet.^[7][5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora (1246–1252, in an 18th-century copy), where the Virgin tells a cleric to say a psalm every day: mándote cada día un salmo recitar “I bid you recite a psalm each day”.^[8][9][4] In the Middle Ages the verb usually meant “to read aloud” and “to cite, relate”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century Juan Fernández de Heredia used it for “to relate, report” what an author says: segunt que el mismo recita en la suya homelia “as he himself relates in his homily”.^[8] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1737) defined it only as “to relate, tell or say aloud a speech or prayer”;^[10] Corominas notes that the sense “to say from memory”, the usual one today, can be deduced there only from the article recitativo.^[10][4] The Academy added “to say from memory and aloud a speech, a play” in 1817.^[11] From 1843 its examples were verses and speeches.^[12] Moliner now puts the artistic delivery of a literary passage, an actor's part or a poem first.^[13]

Timeline

• 1246–1252 – Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora (in an 18th-century copy).^[8]
• 1376 – the first texts with the verb in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[14]
• 1377–1399 – Fernández de Heredia's translations, the first CDH hits from manuscripts of their own time.^[8]
• 1545 – first record in the Americas, in the Río de la Plata.^[15]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as saying a speech or prayer aloud.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the sense “to say from memory”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, from Latin recitare.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To recite: to say verses, a speech or a text by heart and aloud, often before an audience: La niña recitó un soneto en la fiesta del colegio.^[3][13][1]
2. (transitive) To relate, tell, or say aloud a speech or a prayer (oración).^[3][13]

Word family

• recitación
• recitado
• recitativo
• recitador
• recitante
• recital

Related words

• rezar
• citar
• Latin recitō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. recitar
3. ^ 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. recitar
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 92
5. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. recitar
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. recitare
8. ^ 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. recitar
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. recitar
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 517
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 735
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 615
13. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. recitar
14. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. recitar
15. ^ 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. recitar
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 905