reprochar

Forms

reprochar (first-person singular present reprocho, first-person singular preterite reproché, past participle reprochado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French reprocher (“to reproach”), according to Corominas, who dates it, like the noun reproche taken from French at the same time, to about 1460.^[2][3] Moliner and García de Diego also derive it from the French verb.^[4][5] DICCA-XV treats it instead as a Spanish derivative of the noun, and the DLE only compares Portuguese reprochar and the French verb.^[6][7][8]

Corominas says that both words came in as terms of chivalry, and that the verb kept that tone in the Romancero del Cid and in Cervantes's novel of Don Quixote.^[3] Catalan took reprotxar with the same chivalric colour, frequent in Tirant lo Blanch.^[3] Old Occitan had repropchar.^[3]

In French the verb was earlier Old French reprochier.^[1][9] Its second /p/, which the Occitan forms show, points to a base Vulgar Latin *repropium for the noun and *repropiare for the verb; the noun, found in French from the Chanson de Roland, is probably the starting point.^[3] Diez explained the verb as a derivative of Latin prope (“near”), “to bring near repeatedly”, and the REW and Bloch followed him.^[3] Wiktionary and the Wikcionario still give this view.^[1][9] Corominas, following Schuchardt, prefers to see the noun as a variant of opprobrium (“reproach, disgrace”) and reprobatio, reshaped under the influence of their synonym improperium; the Old French noun itself meant “disgrace, outrage”.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas and the Diccionario de Autoridades cite the Crónica de Juan II (about 1460): the nobles thought that what had happened at ⟨Tordesillas⟩ was such that it se les podía reprochar “could be held against them”.^[3][10][2] The CDH has older hits, in the Libro del cavallero Cifar (1300–1305) and in Gutierre Díaz de Games's El Victorial (1431–1449), but both are known only from copies of the late 15th century or later.^[11][6]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th and 16th centuries the verb often meant to slight or reject someone, a sense close to the chivalric one: in the Quijote the hero complains that his lady has wronged him en despedirme y reprocharme “in dismissing and rejecting me”.^[3][12] Nebrija rendered it with Latin reprobo and obprobro in about 1495.^[13][6] The Academy's dictionaries from 1817 to 1884 kept a second sense “to dismiss, reject, disdain” beside the main one, “to throw something in someone's face”.^[14][15][16]

Autoridades called it an old Castilian word, formed with the particle re- on Latin projicere “to throw forward”, an etymology the Academy repeated in 1899.^[10][17] In 1855 Baralt defended the verb against the charge of being a Gallicism, quoting the old chronicles, the Celestina and Cervantes.^[18] Today it means to blame someone for something, and Moliner notes that the object can be either the person or the fault; it is also used reflexively.^[4][7] In the Americas it is recorded from a vocabulary printed in Mexico City in 1571.^[19]

Timeline

• 1300–1305 – Libro del cavallero Cifar, in a copy of the late 15th century.^[11]
• 1431–1449 – the participle reprochado in El Victorial, in a later copy.^[11][6]
• c. 1460 – the Crónica de Juan II, the first record Corominas gives.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin reprobo and obprobro as its equivalents.^[13]
• 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[19]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it an old Castilian word.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the sense “to dismiss, reject, disdain”.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as “to reprove, throw in someone's face” and derives it from reproche.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To reproach or blame someone for something; to throw something in someone's face: Le reprochaba siempre su falta de puntualidad.^[7][4][1]
2. (reflexive) To reproach oneself: No tengo nada que reprocharme.^[7][4]

Word family

• reprochable
• irreprochable
• reprochador

Related words

• reproche
• oprobio
• improperio
• French reprocher
• Catalan reprotxar

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. reproche
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 878
4. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. reprochar
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. reprochar
6. ^ 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. reprochar
7. ^ a b c d 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. reprochar
8. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. reprochar
9. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. reprochar
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 586
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, p. s.v. reprochar
12. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 968
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 408
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 755
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 630
16. ^ 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. 924
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 865
18. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 610
19. ^ 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. reprochar