repetir

Forms

repetir (first-person singular present repito, first-person singular preterite repetí, past participle repetido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin repetō (“to make for again; to claim back; to repeat”), a learned word.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin verb is formed from re- and petō (“to make for; to seek, ask for”), which is inherited in Spanish as pedir.^[5][6][4] Corominas glosses the Latin verb “to turn again to, to bring something back, to resume, to ask again”.^[6][2]

The BDELC dates the word to 1444.^[2] In the DCECH Corominas records it first in Covarrubias, as a term of the schools, and the general sense only from Solís at the end of the 17th century; the CDH has the general sense much earlier, from 1293.^[6][7] The French verb répéter was borrowed from Latin at the beginning of the 13th century, beside an Old French popular form repeïr;^[8][1] The Italian counterpart is ripetere.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first clear hit is the Castigos of 1293, which declines to repeat what it has already said of the king of the bees: poreso non lo Repetimos aqui.^[7] Juan Manuel's Libro de los estados (1327–1332) has a student go back to reading and repeating his lesson, tornar a leer et a repetir su lecçion.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The DEMel records the variant arrepetir in the Libro de buen amor.^[9] Nebrija gave Latin itero and repeto for it.^[10] Covarrubias in 1611 gave three senses: to ask back what is one's own, or ask repeatedly; to say the same words many times; and in the schools to perform the act called repetición to take a degree.^[11] Autoridades in 1737 had the same three.^[12] The Academy's 1817 edition added the legal claim for something paid wrongly or for another person, an artist's copy of his own work, and the taste of food that comes back to the mouth.^[13] That of 1843 marked “to ask again” as obsolete and added the pronominal use for an artist who repeats himself from a poverty of ideas.^[14]

Recent senses are “to take a second helping” and “to repeat a school year”.^[3][15][16] In Mexico the verb can mean “to burp”.^[1] In Chile repetírsele a alguien is said of a thought that keeps coming back.^[17] The first record from the Americas, of 1551, is a legal claim in Guatemala.^[18]

Timeline

• 1293 – the Castigos use repetir for saying something again.^[7]
• 1327–1332 – Juan Manuel uses it for repeating a lesson.^[7]
• 1444 – the BDELC's date of first record.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin itero and repeto.^[10]
• 1551 – the first record from the Americas, in Guatemala.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the school sense.^[11][6]
• 1817 – the Academy records the senses of food and of the artist's copy.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To repeat: to do again what one has done, or say again what one has said: Repitió la pregunta porque nadie la había oído.^[3][1]
2. At a meal, to take a second helping of the same dish: El guiso estaba tan rico que todos repitieron.^[3][1]
3. (law) To claim against a third party for an eviction, a payment or a loss one has suffered.^[3]
4. (obsolete) To ask for something many times or insistently.^[3]
5. (intransitive) Of food or drink, to come back to the mouth in its taste: El pepino me repite.^[3][15]
6. In universities, to perform the repetición.^[3]
7. (pronominal) Of a person, to keep doing or saying the same things.^[3]
8. (pronominal) Of a thing, to happen again regularly: Las inundaciones se repiten cada otoño.^[3][1]
9. (pronominal; sculpture, painting) Of an artist, to keep using the same attitudes, perspectives or groups.^[3]
10. To repeat a school year or subject after failing it.^[15][16]
11. (Mexico) To burp.^[1]

Word family

• repetición
• repetidor
• repetible
• repetidamente
• repetido
• repetitivo

Related words

• Latin repetō
• French répéter
• Italian ripetere

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like pedir: repito, repitió.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. repetir
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. repetir
4. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. repetir
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 457
7. ^ 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. repetir
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. répéter
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. repetir
10. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (c. 1495), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca (facsimile, Madrid: Real Academia Española 1951), p. 182
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 581
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 753
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 629
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. repetir
16. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. repetir
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. repetir
18. ^ 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. repetir