rogar

Forms

rogar (first-person singular present ruego, first-person singular preterite rogué, past participle rogado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish rogar, inherited from Latin rogō (“to ask (a question); to request”).^[2][3][4][1] Spanish has the diphthong /we/ in the stressed forms of the present, which Autoridades described as an irregularity of the verb.^[5]

As a popular word the Latin verb survives only in the outlying Romance languages: Portuguese rogar, Old French rover, Romansh ruver and Romanian ruga.^[2][6] The others took up Latin precor instead, and Corominas rejects the Catalan and Occitan forms listed by the REW.^[2]

De Vaan takes the Latin verb as probably formed from a noun meaning “directing oneself towards someone”, or from an adjective Proto-Indo-European *h₃roǵ-o- (“stretching”) (of the arms in begging), of the root *h₃reǵ- (“to stretch out”); regō and rogus (“funeral pile”) are of the same root.^[7][1] Wiktionary gives the alternative that it comes from procō, which would make it a relative of that verb.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) already uses the verb in all its modern constructions: the Cid kneels in the church of Santa María at Burgos and de coraçón rogava “prayed from his heart”, and elsewhere people ask the king for something or pray to God.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb meant both “to ask a question” and “to request”, and Spanish kept only the second.^[3][2] From the start it was used of praying to God and the saints, as in Berceo's Rogo a estas sanctas que rogassen por ella.^[9][10] Autoridades defined it as to ask for something as a favour, to press someone with entreaties, and to pray to God.^[5]

Proverbs with the verb include A Dios rogando y con el mazo dando, “praying to God and striking with the mallet”, and Más vale el ruego del amigo que el hierro del enemigo.^[11][1] Hacerse de rogar means to refuse at first and give in only when pressed.^[12][1] In Judaeo-Spanish a rogar means “in great abundance”, of fruit offered cheaply at the market.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid: de coraçón rogava.^[8][2]
• c. 1180 – the Auto de los Reyes Magos: iré lo aoraré, i pregaré i rogaré.^[8]
• 1254 – the Fuero Juzgo uses it of a wife pleading with her husband.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin precor and deprecor.^[14]
• 1524 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme: rogar a Dios Nuestro Señor.^[15]
• 1856 – Monlau records the proverb A Dios rogando y con el mazo dando.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To ask someone for something as a favour; to beg, entreat: Le rogó que no contara nada.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To press someone with entreaties.^[16][1]
3. (intransitive) To pray or plead for someone or something.^[4][1]

Word family

• rogación
• rogador
• rogativa
• ruego

Related words

• abrogar
• arrogar
• rogativo
• rogatorio
• Latin precor
• Portuguese rogar

Usage notes

Rogar changes the stressed o to ue (ruego, ruegue) like contar.^[5] The set phrase is hacerse de rogar.^[1][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 49
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rogar
4. ^ 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. rogar
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 633
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. rogāre
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
9. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 674
10. ^ 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. rogar
11. ^ a b Monlau, Pedro Felipe (1856), Diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana (ensayo), Madrid: Imprenta de la Sociedad Literaria y Tipográfica, p. 397
12. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 682
13. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. rogar
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 410
15. ^ 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. rogar
16. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. rogar