recuperar

Forms

recuperar (first-person singular present recupero, first-person singular preterite recuperé, past participle recuperado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin recuperō (“to recover, get back”), a learned doublet of recobrar, which continues the same Latin verb by inheritance.^[2][3][4][1] García de Diego also calls it a learned word; cobrar was taken out of the inherited verb early on.^[5][2]

The Latin verb, earlier reciperō, is formed on the root of capiō (“to take”) with the prefix re-; de Vaan lists it among the derivatives of that verb, attested from Cato.^[2][1][6] The inherited outcomes in the other Romance languages are Portuguese recobrar, Catalan recobrar, Occitan recobrar and Old French recovrer.^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hits, from 1223 on, are the Latin infinitive recuperare in charters of the abbey of Irache.^[8] DEMel records the participle recuperado in a document of 1311 from the Sepúlveda collection.^[9] The first Spanish text in the CDH is Enrique de Villena's glossed translation of the Aeneid (1427–1428, in a copy of 1442): non abasta salir de los viçios para recuperar estas dos voluntades “it is not enough to leave the vices behind to recover these two wills”.^[8][10] The DCECH and the BDELC date the word only from Oudin's dictionary of 1607.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

For a long time recobrar remained the usual verb: Covarrubias did not list recuperar, and Alonso de Palencia in 1490 explained Latin recuperare with recobrar.^[2] Percyvall glossed recuperar “to recouer” in 1591.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1737) defined it as getting back something one had and gave the pronominal recuperarse “to recover from a mishap or setback”.^[12]

Senses absent from the dictionaries of 1884 to 1917 have since been added: to make up lost working time, to pass a subject failed in an earlier examination, and to recover used materials for recycling.^{[13][14][4][15]} In Honduras recuperar is a euphemism for occupying private or state land to build or farm on it.^[16]

Timeline

• 1223 – the Latin recuperare in a charter of Irache, the first of many.^[8]
• 1311 – the participle recuperado in a Sepúlveda document.^[9]
• 1427–1428 – Enrique de Villena's translation of the Aeneid (in a copy of 1442).^[8]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia glosses Latin recuperare with recobrar.^[2]
• 1563 – first record in the Americas, in Yucatán.^[17]
• 1591 – Percyvall: “to recouer”.^[11]
• 1607 – Oudin's dictionary, the first record in the DCECH and the BDELC.^[2][3]
• 1626 – first record of recuperación.^[2][3]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin recuperare.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To recover, to get back something one had before: La policía recuperó el coche robado.^[4][1]
2. To put back into service something that was useless; to recover materials for recycling.^[4][15]
3. To work extra time to make up for work not done.^[4]
4. To pass a subject, or part of it, after failing it in an earlier examination.^[4]
5. (pronominal) To come round, regain consciousness.^[4]
6. (pronominal) To recuperate, to return to normal after illness or a difficult situation: Tardó meses en recuperarse de la operación.^[4][1]
7. (Honduras, euphemism) To occupy private or state land to build or farm on it.^[16]

Word family

• recuperación
• recuperable

Related words

• recobrar
• cobrar
• Latin recuperō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 825
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. recobrar
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. recuperar
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. recuperar
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. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. recuperāre
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. recuperar
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. recuperar
10. ^ 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. recuperar
11. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 201
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 527
13. ^ 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. 908
14. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1428
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. recuperar
16. ^ 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. recuperar
17. ^ 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. recuperar