remunerar

Forms

remunerar (first-person singular present remunero, first-person singular preterite remuneré, past participle remunerado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin remūnerō (“to repay, reward”), also used as the deponent remūneror, the form the DCECH, the BDELC and the 1884 Academy dictionary give.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} The Latin verb is formed from re- and mūnerō (“to bestow, give a present”), from mūnus (“duty, task; gift”).^[7][8][1]

Corominas dates it from the mid-15th century (about 1440) and Vox from the 15th century; the CDH has it from 1379–1384, in Heredia's translation of Plutarch.^{[2][3][9][10][11]}

The same Latin verb gave Portuguese remunerar, Catalan remunerar, French rémunérer and Italian rimunerare.^[1][12] The French verb was taken from Latin about 1330.^[13]

Wiktionary derives the Latin noun from *moinos and *mey- (“to change, exchange”), and relates it to commūnis (“common”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Heredia's Plutarch (1379–1384) the speaker tells Cato that neither he nor all the people of Rome could repay him worthily: te podriemos remunerar dignament de aquesta prosperidat “we could reward you worthily for this good fortune”.^[10] The first sense is thus “to reward, repay”.^[10][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb kept the sense “to reward, recompense” in the 15th and 16th centuries, often of services: a 15th-century cancionero advises a ruler remunerad los serviçios “reward services”.^[10] Covarrubias in 1611 glossed it as “to gratify”, and Autoridades defined it as to recompense, reward or requite.^[14][15] American documents from 1537 on often have the metathesised form renumerar.^[16] Terreros described it as giving each person reward or punishment according to his deeds.^[17] Today it means above all “to pay for work or a service”, and of an activity “to bring profit”.^[4][18]

Timeline

• 1379–1384 – Heredia's translation of Plutarch has remunerar.^[10]
• c. 1440 – the date Corominas gives for the first record.^[3][2]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin remunero as galardonar.^[11]
• 1537 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City, in the form renumerados.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias glosses it as gratificar.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin remunerari.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To reward, recompense: El rey remuneró a sus vasallos fieles.^[4][9]
2. To pay someone for work or a service: Es un puesto que se remunera mal.^[4][18]
3. Of an activity: to bring profit.^[4][18]

Word family

• remuneración
• remunerativo
• remunerador

Related words

• Latin remuneror
• French rémunérer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 188
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. remunerar
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. remunerar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. remūneror
6. ^ 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. 919
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. remunerar
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. remunerar
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. remunerar
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, p. s.v. remunerar
12. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 663
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. rémunérer
14. ^ 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. 1257
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 571
16. ^ 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. remunerar
17. ^ 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, 340
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. remunerar