remitir

Forms

remitir (first-person singular present remito, first-person singular preterite remití, past participle remitido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin remittō (“to send back; to let go, slacken; to remit”), a learned word.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and mittō (“to let go, send”), the source of meter.^[5][6]

The dates given for the borrowing differ: Corominas dates it to the second quarter of the 15th century and Vox to the 16th, while the CDH has it in the translations of Juan Fernández de Heredia of 1376–1396.^[3][4][7]

The inherited outcome of the Latin verb is remeter “to put back in”, which also meant “to send” in Aragonese.^[8] Elsewhere the Latin verb gave Catalan remetre, French remettre and Italian rimettere.^[8][1] Nascentes considers Portuguese remitir a semi-learned word.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Fernández de Heredia's Libro de actoridades Camillus sends the schoolmaster back to the city, bound and whipped, with the boys: remitio lo maestro, ligado et açotado, con los moços a la ciudat.^[7] His translation of Orosius already has the sense “to let off”: the Roman senate remitted the taxes of the people of Catania for ten years.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Medieval Latin used the verb for remitting debts and forgiving sins, and these senses passed into Spanish beside “to send”.^[10] Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary of 1492 glosses Latin remitto as “to send in return” and as “to forgive”.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 gives the sense “to pardon”, and remitir la causa, to leave a case to other judges.^[12] Autoridades has “to send”, “to pardon” and “to put off”.^[13][14]

Terreros records the sense “to slacken”: a horse remits its pace after a long run.^[15] The Academy added in 1817 the senses “to lose intensity”, “to leave to another's judgement” and “to refer to a document”, and in 1899 that of referring the reader to another place in a text.^[16][17] Medicine uses it for a doctor referring a patient to a specialist, and for a disease that abates.^[18][19] In the Americas it is recorded from 1528, in Santo Domingo.^[20]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – Juan Fernández de Heredia uses remitio “sent back” and “remitted (taxes)”.^[7]
• 1425–1450 – Corominas's date of first record.^[3]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin remitto as “to send in return” and “to forgive”.^[11]
• 1528 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo: remítome a su mucha distinción.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives “to pardon” and remitir la causa.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades has “to send”, “to pardon” and “to put off”.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy adds “to lose intensity” and “to leave to another's judgement”.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To send someone or something to a person or place: Le remitimos el contrato por correo certificado.^[2][1][21]
2. To remit, pardon; to lift a penalty, or release someone from an obligation.^[2][1]
3. To put off, defer or suspend.^[2][21]
4. Of a thing, to abate, lose part of its intensity (also intransitive and pronominal): La fiebre remitió al amanecer.^[2][1][18]
5. To leave the decision of something to someone's judgement (mostly pronominal).^[2][21]
6. To refer the reader, in a text, to another place in it or in another text.^[2][21]
7. (pronominal) To abide by or refer to what one or another person has said or done: Me remito a las cifras del informe.^[2][21]

Word family

• remitente
• remisión
• remisible
• irremisible
• remiso

Related words

• meter
• remeter
• admitir
• permitir
• emitir
• French remettre

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 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. remitir
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. meter
4. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. remitir
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5578
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. remitir
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ 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
12. ^ 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. 1256
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 567
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
15. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 337
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 749
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 861
18. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. remitir
19. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. remitir
20. ^ a b 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. remetir
21. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. remitir