retornar

Forms

retornar (first-person singular present retorno, first-person singular preterite retorné, past participle retornado)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish re- + tornar “to turn; to return”.^[2][3][4] Gómez de Silva derives it instead from Vulgar Latin *retornare (“to turn back”).^[5]

Tornar continues Latin tornō (“to turn on a lathe”), from tornus (“lathe”), which is from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “lathe”).^[3][6][7] Corominas calls the word uncommon and not very idiomatic in Castilian; it is more usual in Portuguese and Catalan, although there too the plain intransitive verb is the ordinary word.^[3] The same formation is Catalan retornar, Portuguese retornar, French retourner and Italian ritornare.^[8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), in a passage on the deputy a judge leaves in his place.^[11] Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa (c. 1228–1246, in an early 14th-century copy) has the participle for two figures with their faces “turned” towards each other, and uses the verb for singing the Agnus Dei again a third time.^[11][12] The DCECH's first record is later, the Gran conquista de Ultramar of about 1300.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose used it for bending or turning something back, for going back to a place, and in astronomy for converting one kind of hour into another.^[13] Nebrija recorded the pronominal retornar en sí “to come to”, which the Academy now marks as obsolete.^[14][15]

Autoridades gave “to go back to the place one left” first, then “to give back, repaying or rewarding”, and “to twist something to one side”.^[16] From 1817 the Academy also gave “to make something go back”, and by 1843 the intransitive sense covered going back to a former situation too.^[17][18] Its 1884 edition was the first to explain the word as re and tornar.^[2] Today it means above all coming back to a place or state, and giving something back.^[19][15]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has the participle.^[11]
• c. 1228–1246 – Berceo's Del sacrificio de la misa uses it for turned faces and for a repeated chant.^[11][12]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for coming back to a land.^[13]
• c. 1300 – the Gran conquista de Ultramar, the DCECH's first record.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records retornar en sí.^[14]
• 1532 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[20]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from re and tornar.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To return, give back: Retornó el dinero a quien se lo había prestado.^[15][19][1]
2. (transitive) To twist something again.^[15][19]
3. (transitive) To make something go back or move backwards.^[15][19]
4. (intransitive, also pronominal) To go or come back to the place or situation one was in before: Tras diez años fuera, retornó a su ciudad.^[15][1]
5. (obsolete) retornar en sí: to come to, recover consciousness.^[15][14]

Word family

• retornable
• retorno

Related words

• tornar
• torno
• trastornar
• French retourner

Usage notes

Judeo-Spanish retornar means “to go back, come back”, and also “to come round after fainting”.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 930
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 558
4. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 611
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. torno
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 175
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. retornar
11. ^ 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. retornar
12. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 665
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. retornar
14. ^ 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. retornar
15. ^ a b c d e f g 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. retornar
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 606
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 761
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 635
19. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. retornar
20. ^ 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. retornar
21. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. retornâr