reclamar

Forms

reclamar (first-person singular present reclamo, first-person singular preterite reclamé, past participle reclamado)^[1] Medieval texts often spell it rreclamar.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin reclāmō (“to cry out against, protest; to call repeatedly”), a compound of re- (“back, again”) and clāmō (“to shout, call”).^[3][1][4] Corominas lists it among the learned words of the family of llamar, the inherited outcome of the same Latin verb.^[5][6] In Medieval Latin the verb meant “to complain of a wrong, to appeal, to object, to claim”, the legal senses the Spanish word took over.^[7]

The same learned verb is Portuguese reclamar, Catalan reclamar and Italian reclamare; French réclamer has been in use since 1080.^[8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH and the DEMel find it first in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215, in a 14th-century copy), where Mary says she cannot enter the temple ni oso a Dios me reclamar “nor dare to call upon God”.^[11][2] Corominas dated it only to the 15th century, from a medieval Bible translation and Alonso de Palencia, and the BDELC to 1444.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense appears in the Fueros de Aragón of 1247, where the defendant may ask the plaintiff for surety que nunqua ia mas se reclame a carta “that he will never again appeal to a charter” in that suit.^[11] Nebrija has reclamar de agravio “to protest a grievance”, and Covarrubias defines the verb as contradicting something once or many times.^[12][13]

In 1737 the Diccionario de Autoridades gave the call of birds to one another, the luring of birds with a decoy call (reclamo) and the legal sense “to oppose a sentence”.^[14] The Academy's 1869 edition added an authority summoning a fugitive, and its 1884 edition “to demand as of right” (reclamar el precio de un trabajo).^[15][16] In 1855 Baralt condemned phrases such as reclamar la autoridad de las leyes as Gallicisms, preferring invocar or exigir.^[17] In Cuba the verb is used for asking a foreign country's consulate to let a relative emigrate.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca has a Dios me reclamar.^[11][2]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón use it for appealing to a charter.^[11]
• 1444 – the BDELC's date of first record.^[6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has reclamar de agravio, Latin reclamo.^[12]
• 1539 – the first record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as contradicting.^[13]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the bird-calling and legal senses.^[14]
• 1855 – Baralt criticises reclamar la autoridad as a Gallicism.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy adds “to demand as of right” and gives the Latin etymology.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To call repeatedly or insistently.^[3]
2. To claim, demand something as one's right or with insistence: Reclamó el dinero que le debían.^[3][1]
3. (hunting) To lure birds with a reclamo.^[3][1]
4. (law) Of an authority: to summon a fugitive; of a competent judge: to claim an accused person or a case that another court is wrongly hearing.^[3]
5. (intransitive) To protest, object to something in speech or writing: Los vecinos reclamaron contra el nuevo impuesto.^[3][20]
6. (poetic) To resound.^[3][1]
7. (reflexive, also transitive) Of birds of one species: to call to one another.^[3]
8. (Cuba) To apply for permission for a relative to emigrate to the country where one lives.^[18]

Word family

• reclamación
• reclamante
• reclamo

Related words

• clamar
• llamar
• aclamar
• proclamar
• Latin reclāmō
• French réclamer

Usage notes

The DLE has a separate reclamar² from reclame, the sheave box at the head of a topmast, in the nautical phrase a reclamar: of a sail hoisted or tackle hauled until the bolt ropes or falls are taut.^[3][21] Earlier Academy editions defined this reclamar as the yard coming up close to the reclame.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. reclamar
3. ^ 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. reclamar
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 721
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. llamar
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 641
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2849
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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. reclamar
12. ^ a b 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. reclamar
13. ^ 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. 1249
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 518
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 661
16. ^ 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. 905
17. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 595
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. reclamar
19. ^ 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. reclamar
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. reclamar
21. ^ 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. reclame
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 615