reprobar

Forms

reprobar (first-person singular present repruebo, first-person singular preterite reprobé, past participle reprobado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin reprobāre (“to reject, condemn”), a learned word beside the inherited probar.^{[2][1][3][4][5]} The Latin verb, found in Late Latin and in Christian writers, is formed from re- (“back, against”) and probō (“to test; to approve”), and took the place of classical improbō.^[1][6][7] The simple verb is a derivative of probus (“good, upright”), which Wiktionary takes back to *pro-bʰH-wó-s (“being in front”).^[1][5] DICCA-XV explains the Latin verb instead as a cross between that adjective and probrum (“disgrace”).^[8]

Like aprobar and the inherited verb, it has the diphthong ⟨ue⟩ under the stress, as in ⟨repruebo⟩.^[9][1] The same Latin verb gave Catalan reprovar, Portuguese reprovar, French réprouver and Italian riprovare.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is the participle in the Castigos of 1293, in the words of the Last Judgement: Dira otrosy alos Reprouados yd malditos conel diablo al fuego perdurable “he will also say to the reprobate: go, accursed, with the devil into the everlasting fire”.^[14] Finite forms appear in the works of Fernández de Heredia (1376–1396): El uuestro consello non lo reprueuo “I do not reject your counsel”.^[14][15] Corominas, who dates the verb from the Corbacho, and the BDELC (1444) are later.^[4][5][8]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias defines it as to condemn and reject, and the Diccionario de Autoridades as to condemn, contradict, exclude, not admit or not approve, with a theological sense: of God, to decree eternal punishment for one who dies in mortal sin.^[16][17] Terreros contrasts this sense with salvar “to save”.^[18] The Academy shortened the definition in 1899 to “not to approve, to judge bad”, which the DLE keeps.^[19][2] In most of Latin America it is also the word for failing a student or an exam, the sense of Spain's suspender.^[20][21][9]

Timeline

• 1293 – the participle reprouados in the Castigos.^[14]
• 1376–1396 – finite forms in Fernández de Heredia.^[14][15]
• 1390 – the spelling reprobar in a document of Sepúlveda.^[22]
• 1444 – the BDELC's date of first record.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin reprobo and improbo.^[8]
• 1518 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[23]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the theological sense.^[17]
• 1899 – the Academy's definition “not to approve, to judge bad”.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To disapprove of, to condemn, to judge something or someone bad, especially on moral grounds: Sus padres reprobaban aquellas amistades.^[2][9][1]
2. (Latin America) Of a teacher, to fail a student; of a student, to fail an exam, subject or year: Reprobé química en el segundo semestre.^[20][21][1]

Word family

• reprobable
• reprobación
• reprobatorio

Related words

• aprobar
• probar
• réprobo
• probo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. reprobar
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 606
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 657
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. probar
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. reprobar
8. ^ a b c 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. reprobar
9. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. reprobar
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. reprovar
11. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. reprovar
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
13. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 619
14. ^ 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, p. s.v. reprobar
15. ^ a b 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, p. s.v. reprobar
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. 1259
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 585
18. ^ 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, 350
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 865
20. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. reprobar
21. ^ a b 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. reprobar
22. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. reprobar
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. reprobar