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reparar

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word reparar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1250 Vidal Mayor More words from the 13th century
Borrowed from
Latin reparo via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Latin parō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin parō
Italian parare
French parade
English parade
Spanish parar
English pare
Latin reparō
Italian riparare
French réparer
Romanian repara
Spanish reparar
From the same root
Latin apparō ← parō
Latin disparō ← parō
Latin imperō ← parō
Latin parābilis ← parō
Latin parātus ← parō
Latin praeparō ← parō
Latin sēparō ← parō
Spanish parada ← parō
Latin reparābilis ← reparō
Latin reparātiō ← reparō
Latin reparātor ← reparō

Pronunciation

  • /repaˈɾaɾ/, [re.paˈɾaɾ][1]

Forms

reparar (first-person singular present reparo, first-person singular preterite reparé, past participle reparado)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish reparar, borrowed from Latin reparō (“to recover, restore, renew”).[2][3][4] Vox calls it a 14th-century loan from Latin, and DICCA-XV says it was taken from Latin;[5][4][1] Wiktionary instead treats it as inherited through Old Spanish, while noting that it may be a borrowing.[5][4][1] Corominas lists it among the words of the family of parar.[2]

The Latin verb is formed from re- and parō (“to prepare, provide”).[6][1] The same word is Portuguese reparar, Galician reparar, Catalan reparar, French réparer and Italian riparare.[7][8][1] French borrowed it from Latin about 1130.[9]

De Vaan explains the simple verb as most likely a verb made from a noun of the root Proto-Indo-European *perH- (“to grant, provide”), though Rix derives it directly from a verbal present of that root.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest Spanish records are in Navarrese and Aragonese law texts of about 1250, both on repairing town walls: the Vidal Mayor heads a chapter De reparar los muros “On repairing the walls”, rendering the Latin heading De refectione murorum, and the Fuero de Viguera y Val de Funes speaks of the lord's duty por reparar muros.[11][12] The DEMel's earliest primary record, the form rreparares, is in the Flores de filosofía (before 1250).[12]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose the verb meant to mend or restore a building or a city: Babylon was reparada et refecha “repaired and rebuilt” by Queen Semiramis.[13][11] Nebrija gave it the Latin equivalents reficio, reparo and instauro.[14][15] In 1611 Covarrubias defined it as to remedy or mend something, but also as to stop because of some obstacle, hence “to hesitate”, and as to parry an opponent's blow.[16]

The sense “to notice, look carefully at” is in Autoridades with a passage from Cervantes's Persiles, beside “to consider, reflect” and the old sense of mending.[17] Bénaben explains the sense “to notice” as the mind stopping (parar) on a thing, with re- as an intensive prefix;[18][19] Nascentes notes the same development of the Portuguese verb towards “to fix one's eyes on”.[18][19] In the Americas the verb is used of a horse or steer that bucks, in Mexico, and in Bolivia it was recorded as “to imitate, mimic”.[20][21]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor and the Fuero de Viguera y Val de Funes use reparar of repairing walls.[11]
  • 1261 – first year of the verb in the HSMS corpus of Old Spanish texts.[22]
  • 1280 – Alfonso X's General Estoria says Babylon was reparada et refecha by Semiramis.[13]
  • 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses the verb; this is the DCECH's first record.[2][4]
  • 1533 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico, of repairing houses.[23]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias adds the senses “to stop, hesitate” and “to parry a blow”.[16]
  • 1786–1793 – Terreros records the fencing sense, the parrying of an opponent's stroke.[24]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin reparare.[25]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To repair or mend something broken or damaged: Tardaron una semana en reparar el tejado.[3][1]
  2. (transitive) To put right, correct or remedy a fault or harm.[3][26]
  3. (transitive) To make amends to someone who has been offended or wronged.[3]
  4. (transitive) To parry or ward off a blow.[3][27]
  5. (transitive) To remedy or forestall damage or loss.[3]
  6. (transitive) To restore one's strength or vigour.[3]
  7. (transitive, founding) To give the finishing touches to a cast piece, removing the flaws it brings out of the mould.[3][26]
  8. (intransitive, with en) To notice, look carefully at, become aware of: No reparé en que llevaba otro abrigo.[3][1]
  9. (intransitive) To pay heed to, consider or reflect on something.[3]
  10. (intransitive) To stop or halt somewhere.[3][1]
  11. (pronominal) To restrain or contain oneself.[3]
  12. (Mexico) Of a horse or steer, to buck.[20]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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, 393
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. reparar
  4. ^ a b c d 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. reparar
  5. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. reparar
  6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. reparō
  7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2889
  8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. reparar
  9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. réparer
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
  12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. reparar
  13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. reparar
  14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
  15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 408
  16. ^ 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. 1258
  17. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 577
  18. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. reparar
  19. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. reparar
  20. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 932
  21. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1443
  22. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
  23. ^ 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. reparar
  24. ^ 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, 345
  25. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 921
  26. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. reparar
  27. ^ 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

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Reparar.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/reparar. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·