restaurar

Forms

restaurar (first-person singular present restauro, first-person singular preterite restauré, past participle restaurado)^[1] The Estoria de España of Alfonso X has the form restolassen “they would restore”.^[2] The DEMel also records the form restabrados.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin restaurāre (“to repair, renew, restore”), a learned word.^[4][5][6][1] Corominas notes that it is not common in the Middle Ages and suggests that it was at first a word of the Church, used above all of churches rebuilt during the Reconquista; the 16th-century examples in Autoridades are already secular, and today it is even a craftsman's word.^[4]

The OLD analyses the Latin verb as re- with an unattested *staurō, seen also in īnstaurō (“to renew”).^[7] Bénaben explains the Latin verb as a remodelling of the older one on the pattern of īnstituō beside restituō, because its prefix in- fitted the sense of repetition badly.^[8] Wiktionary compares *stōraz (“big, strong”).^[1] The learned Italian restaurare stands beside the inherited ristorare (“to refresh”), and the verb is also French restaurer and Portuguese restaurar.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215, in a 14th-century copy): Mucho fue la muerte bien fadada / porque la vida fue restaurada “Well fated was the death, because life was restored”.^[10] Corominas's first record is Berceo's Vida de San Millán: el pueblo destruido, los muros trastornados; / nunqua jamás non fueron fechos nin restaurados “the town destroyed, the walls thrown down; never again were they rebuilt or restored”.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts used it for making good a loss or wrong, for restoring a limb to health in the Vidal Mayor (c. 1250), and for rebuilding walls in the Castilian text of the Cortes of León.^[10] In Alfonso X's prose it means “to recover, regain”.^[2] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 glosses restauro as “to renew”.^[11] Covarrubias glossed it “to repair, renew”,^[12] and Autoridades gave both “to recover” and “to repair, renew or put back in its former state or esteem”.^[13]

The Academy's 1869 edition added the repair of a painting or sculpture,^[14] and the DLE now includes buildings.^[6] Moliner gives particularly the restoring of a king to his throne or of an overthrown regime.^[15] The noun restauración is recorded from about 1575.^[4][5] restaurante is a separate borrowing of French restaurant, in the Academy's dictionary from 1817 and with the French sense clearly defined in 1925.^[4] In the Americas the verb is recorded from 1560, in Quito.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (in a 14th-century copy).^[10]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán, Corominas's first record (in an 18th-century copy).^[4][10]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (in an early 15th-century copy).^[10]
• c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor, the first hit without a later copy.^[10]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin dictionary glosses Latin restauro “to renew”.^[11]
• 1555 – the related instaurar is first recorded, in Laguna.^[4]
• 1560 – first record from the Americas, in Quito.^[16]
• c. 1575 – first record of restauración.^[4][5]
• 1611 – Covarrubias glosses it “to repair, renew”.^[12]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the restoration of paintings and sculptures.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To recover, regain.^[6]
2. (transitive) To restore: to repair, renew or put something back into the state or esteem it had before: Quieren restaurar el buen nombre del pueblo.^[6][1]
3. (transitive) To repair a painting, sculpture, building or other work from the damage it has suffered: Están restaurando el retablo de la ermita.^[6][17]
4. (transitive) To bring back a deposed king or an overthrown political regime.^[15][17]

Word family

• restauración
• restaurador

Related words

• Latin restaurō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. restaurar
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. restaurar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 888
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. restaurar
6. ^ a b c d e 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. restaurar
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. restaurar
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
12. ^ 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. 1262
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 599
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 679
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. restaurar
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. restaurar
17. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. restaurar