regalar

Forms

regalar (first-person singular present regalo, first-person singular preterite regalé, past participle regalado)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from French régaler (“to entertain, treat”).^[2][3][4][1] The French verb is formed from re- and Old French galer (“to enjoy oneself, make merry”), which is surely of Germanic origin.^[2][4] Corominas thinks régal is a back-formation from the verb rather than its source, and that the French verb was old even though it is recorded only from the late 16th century: the noun is frequent from the 15th century and the variant rigale occurs in 1314.^[2] Wiktionary instead derives the French verb from the noun.^[1] The BDELC traces the Old French verb tentatively to Frankish *wallan (“to boil, seethe”), and the same French family gave Spanish gala.^[5] García de Diego also places the verb with that word.^[6]

Corominas rejects the view of the Dictionnaire général and of Bloch that the French verb came from Italian: Italian words in ⟨re-⟩ are not native (the Italian prefix is ri-), and Italian regalare and regalo are rare before the 17th century.^[2] Catalan regal, a noun recorded in the 15th century, must also be a Gallicism.^[2] The Academy's dictionary of 1899 derived the verb from regalía, and its 2001 edition only compared the Italian and French verbs; the current dictionary gives the French source.^[7][8][4]

Covarrubias took it from the Latin word for “king”, as kings enjoy the greatest delights, and the Diccionario de Autoridades preferred a Greek word for “milk”, as the ancients thought dishes made with milk especially pleasant.^[9] Gómez de Silva still derives it from Old French regal (“royal”), from Latin rēgālis (“royal”), but Wiktionary says it is not related to that Latin word.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is Nebrija's regalar halagando “to regale by flattering”, glossed delicate tracto “I treat delicately”.^[2][3] The word is not in the medieval sources, the glossaries of about 1400 or Alfonso de Palencia;^[11][12] Corominas warns that lexicographers have mixed it up with the medieval regalar “to melt”, which is a different word.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Golden Age regalar meant “to pamper, treat delicately, entertain”: Cristóbal de las Casas (1570) gives Italian vezzeggiare, Percyvall (1591) “to cocker, to make much of”, and Covarrubias explains regalarse as enjoying the delights kings can have.^[2] The phrase regalar con un presente already existed, but regalo still meant “treat, entertainment”.^[2] The sense “to give as a present” is first in the Diccionario de Autoridades (1737), whose volume leads with “to treat or give someone something, freely or by obligation”;^[11][12] Corominas finds no literary use before about 1800, in Leandro Fernández de Moratín, and notes that in Argentina obsequiar is still the usual word for giving a present.^[2][3][9] Autoridades also has “to flatter, caress” and “to delight”.^[9]

The old regalado “delicate, fastidious” of Juan Manuel belongs to the verb “to melt”, used figuratively; later it blended with the borrowed verb, and Judeo-Spanish keeps regalado “only son, privileged” and regalar “to spoil a child”.^[2] In Chile regalar also means “to sell very cheaply”, and in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador simply “to sell”.^[11][12] Reflexive regalarse is “to expose oneself to a danger” in Cuba and Uruguay, and in Argentina, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru and Uruguay “to show attraction openly”.^[4][12]

Timeline

• 1495 – Nebrija's regalar halagando.^[2][3]
• 1550 – the first record from the Americas, in Santa Marta: to win over the villages and attract them with gifts.^[13]
• 1570 – Cristóbal de las Casas glosses it with Italian vezzeggiare “to pamper”.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains regalo as royal treatment.^[2]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades has the sense “to give as a present”.^[3][9]
• c. 1800 – Leandro Fernández de Moratín uses it of giving.^[2]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from regalía.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To give something as a present, asking nothing in return: Le regalé un libro por su cumpleaños.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To flatter or caress someone, to show them affection.^[4]
3. (transitive, also reflexive) To delight, regale, entertain.^[4][1]
4. (reflexive) To treat oneself well, enjoying every comfort.^[4]
5. (reflexive; colloquial, Cuba, Uruguay) To expose oneself knowingly to a danger or risk.^[4]
6. (reflexive; colloquial, Argentina, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Uruguay) To show attraction to someone openly.^[4]

Word family

• regalado
• regalón
• regalo

Related words

• gala
• French régaler

Usage notes

The DLE has a separate regalar “to melt”, which it derives, perhaps, from Vulgar Latin *recalare, from re- and Latin calāre (“to let down, loosen”), from Ancient Greek χαλᾶν (chalân, “to loosen, let fall”).^[14] Corominas favours the same source, since Catalan and Occitan regalar also mean “to drip, run down a surface”, and rejects Latin regelāre (“to thaw”) on phonetic grounds; the 2001 dictionary, García de Diego and Wikcionario still give that source.^{[15][16][17][18]} This word is in Berceo's oro regalado “molten gold” and was frequent in the Middle Ages; it became rare in the Golden Age because of the clash with regalar “to give”, the Academy left it out in the 19th century and restored it in 1914, and it survives in Soria.^[15] Spanish has the proverb a caballo regalado no le mires el diente “don't look a gift horse in the mouth”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 837
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. regalar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. regalar
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gala
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7303
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 855
8. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. regalar
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 541
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
11. ^ a b c Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 780
12. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. regalar
13. ^ 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. regalar
14. ^ 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. regalar 2
15. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 839
16. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. regalar 2
17. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5539
18. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org