rever

Forms

rever (first-person singular present reveo, first-person singular preterite reví, past participle revisto)^[1] Old Spanish had reveer, as it had veer beside ver: Alfonso X writes reueer and reueyesse.^[2][3][4] Reveer was still written in the Americas in the 16th century, beside rever.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin revideō (“to see again, revisit”), according to the DLE, Moliner and Wikcionario.^[6][7][8] Autoridades and DICCA-XV instead analyse it as formed from Spanish re- + ver.^[9][10] The Latin verb is made of re- (“again”) and videō (“to see”).^[11] The same compound is French revoir and Italian rivedere.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the first part of Alfonso X's General Estoria (1272–1275) the verb is reflexive and means to look at oneself in someone: Adam was made by day por que catasse en dios toda uia & se reueyesse enla su ymagen “so that he would always look to God and see himself in his image”.^[3] DEMel cites a record in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo (c. 1230) from a secondary source.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The reflexive sense of looking at something with pleasure stayed in use: in 1386 López de Ayala advises hunters to se revean in their falcons, as a woman in a mirror.^[13] From the early 16th century the verb was used in the Americas for going over accounts and tribute assessments again: rever la cuenta in Puerto Rico in 1515, hay gran necesidad que se revea esta tasa “this assessment greatly needs to be reviewed” in Chile in 1567.^[5]

Autoridades defines it as seeing again or examining something carefully.^[9] Terreros remarks that in Castilian rever does not require that one has seen the thing twice: ya he revisto el libro means “I have examined the book”.^[14] The Academy's 1817 edition adds the legal sense of a higher court hearing again a case already judged.^[15] The DLE keeps all these senses, with the reflexive one last.^[6]

Timeline

• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria has reueyesse.^[3]
• c. 1275 – the second part of the General Estoria has reueer.^[2][13]
• 1386 – López de Ayala's Libro de la caza de las aves uses revean of falconers.^[13]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, rever la cuenta in Puerto Rico.^[5]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades: to see again or examine carefully.^[9]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros gives rever una causa “to examine a case again”.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the legal sense.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To see again: Quiero rever esa película el domingo.^[6][1]
2. To examine or go over something carefully.^[6][8]
3. (law) Of a higher court: to hear a second time a case already tried and judged in another chamber.^[6][7]
4. (pronominal) To look at oneself in someone or something, taking pleasure in it.^[6][3]

Word family

• revista

Related words

• ver
• revisar
• revisión
• Latin revideō
• French revoir

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. rever
3. ^ a b c d 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. rever
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 713
5. ^ 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. reveer
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. rever
7. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rever
8. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5
10. ^ 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. rever
11. ^ a b Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 181
12. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 665
13. ^ 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. rever
14. ^ 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, 371
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 762