reunir

Forms

reunir (first-person singular present reúno, first-person singular preterite reuní, past participle reunido)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish re- + unir “to join again”.^[1][2][3] unir is a learned borrowing of Late Latin ūniō (“to unite”), from ūnus (“one”).^[3][4] Gómez de Silva traces the Spanish verb to Medieval Latin reūniō (“to unite again”) instead.^[4] Barcia compared Catalan reunir, French réunir and Italian riunire.^[5]

Corominas dates it only to the Diccionario de Autoridades, but the CDH has it in Juan Fernández de Heredia (1379–1384) and in Enrique de Villena (1427–1428), and DICCA-XV dates it to 1400.^[3][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Juan Fernández de Heredia's translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives (1379–1384), Cornelius Lentulus reunio et confortaua “gathered and encouraged” the conspirators of Catiline who had stayed in the city.^[6] In Enrique de Villena's translation of the Aeneid (1427–1428) a horn was blown when men wanted reunir gente “to rally men” in battle, and El Tostado (1437) uses it for joining again what has been separated.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades gives only the sense “to join again what was once joined and came apart”.^[8] Terreros has “to gather, gather again”, also of political bodies (reunir el concilio), and for rallying troops that have fled.^[9] The Academy added “to join, congregate, pile up” in 1817 and the reflexive use in 1869.^[10][11]

In the Americas a medical record of 1738 from New Granada speaks of a plant that reúne a broken bone, and by 1873 a building in Durango had to reunir las condiciones of safety and hygiene, the modern sense “to meet requirements”.^[12] In Andalusian horsemanship reunir is to collect the horse with the reins.^[13]

Timeline

• 1379–1384 – Juan Fernández de Heredia, translation of Plutarch: reunio.^[6]
• 1427–1428 – Enrique de Villena's Aeneid: reunir gente.^[6]
• 1437 – El Tostado: to join again what was separated.^[6]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades, Corominas's first record.^[8][3]
• 1738 – New Granada: of setting a broken bone.^[12]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros adds rallying troops and convening a council.^[9]
• 1817 – the Academy adds “to gather, congregate”.^[10]
• 1869 – the Academy notes the reflexive use.^[11]
• 1873 – Durango, Mexico: a building that does not reúna las condiciones.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To reunite, to join again what was separated: Después de la guerra la familia volvió a reunirse.^[14][1]
2. (transitive, also pronominal) To gather, bring together or assemble people or things: El alcalde reunió a los vecinos en la plaza.^[14][15]
3. To collect things, or save up money, for a purpose: Está reuniendo monedas antiguas.^[14][15]
4. To have or meet certain conditions or requirements: El local reúne todo lo que pedíamos.^[15][1]
5. (pronominal) To meet, to get together: Los socios se reúnen cada lunes.^[15][1]
6. (Andalusia, horsemanship) To collect a horse by drawing on the reins.^[13]

Word family

• reunión

Related words

• unir
• uno
• unión

Usage notes

In the present the stressed u takes a written accent: reúno, reúnes, reúne.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. unire
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 715
4. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 612
5. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 699
6. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. reunir
7. ^ 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. reunir
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 609
9. ^ a b 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, 370
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 762
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 681
12. ^ a b c 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. reunir
13. ^ a b Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 547
14. ^ 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. reunir
15. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. reunir