situar

Forms

situar (first-person singular present sitúo, first-person singular preterite situé, past participle situado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin situō (“to place”), a verb formed from situs (“site, position”).^[2][3][4] Corominas counts it among the purely learned words of its family.^[2] The Academy's earlier editions and Moliner derive it from the Latin noun alone.^[5][6][7]

The Latin noun is the action noun of sinō (“to leave, let; originally to put in place”).^[8][1][9] De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic verb meaning “to put in place” and traces it to Proto-Indo-European *tḱey- (“to build”).^[10][1]

Its doublet is sitiar “to besiege”, which Corominas explains as an Occitan adaptation of the same Medieval Latin verb; in Catalan and Occitan that verb also meant “to seat”.^[11] Terreros gave French situer and Italian situare as its equivalents.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is an inventory of 1325 of the goods left by Ramón Torrent, whose houses are situadas en la parroquia de Santa Maria la mayor “situated in the parish of Santa María la Mayor”.^[13] Corominas dates the verb from 1433.^[2][14] The early records are mostly of the participle, for a building, a city or land “lying” in a place.^[13]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the verb was used in the Americas in law and finance, for setting an annuity on a property: in Puebla in 1540 a couple situamos el dicho çenso sobre otras casas “placed the said annuity on other houses”.^[15] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave both senses, “to put in a place” and “to assign a fund from which someone is paid”.^[16] In 1843 the Academy added the reflexive, “to put oneself in a place, state, occupation or post”.^[17] Salvá recorded the old phrase situar los ojos “to fix one's eyes”, and Domínguez the sense “to post someone on watch”.^[18][19]

The reflexive “to reach a good social or economic position” is in the Academy's 2001 dictionary, and the current dictionary adds “to place in a given time”, as when a novel is set in a period.^[5][3] Judeo-Spanish also has situar.^[20]

Timeline

• 1325 – an inventory of Ramón Torrent's goods has the participle situadas.^[13]
• 1385 – the Libro de Palladio uses situada for land.^[13][21]
• 1433 – the BDELC's date of first record.^[2]
• 1540 – in Puebla, Mexico, the verb is used for setting an annuity on houses.^[15]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the senses “to place” and “to assign a fund”.^[16]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the reflexive “to place oneself”.^[17]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from Latin situs.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To place, put or locate someone or something in a given place or situation; also reflexive: Situaron la mesa junto a la ventana.^[3][1]
2. To assign funds to a payment or investment.^[3][7][1]
3. To place someone or something in a given time; reflexive, of a story, to be set: La novela se sitúa en el siglo XIX.^[3][1]
4. (reflexive) To reach a privileged social, economic or political position.^[3][7]
5. (reflexive) Of a figure or rate, to stand at a certain level.^[1]

Word family

• situación
• situado

Related words

• sitio
• sito
• sitiar
• Latin situs

Usage notes

The stress falls on the u in the forms sitúo, sitúas, sitúe, as in actuar.^[7][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sitio
3. ^ 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. situar
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. situar
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. situar
6. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 919
7. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. situar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 265
12. ^ 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, 505
13. ^ 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. situar
14. ^ 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. situar
15. ^ 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. sitiar
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 122
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 670
18. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1003
19. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1575
20. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. situâr
21. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. situar
22. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. s.v. situar