sobrar

Forms

sobrar (first-person singular present sobro, first-person singular preterite sobré, past participle sobrado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin superō (“to rise above, surpass; to be left over”).^[2][3][4][1] The learned superar, taken from the same Latin verb at the start of the 17th century, is its doublet.^[5][1]

Corominas notes, after Raimundo de Cabrera, that the Latin verb already meant “to be left over” in late texts such as Palladius, the sense that is now the commonest in Spanish.^[2] The transitive sense “to surpass, defeat”, usual in classical Latin, also lived on in Spanish, above all in the Middle Ages.^[2][3]

The same verb is Portuguese sobrar, Galician sobrar, Catalan sobrar, Occitan sobrar, Old Italian soprare and Romanian supăra (“to annoy”).^[6][7] The Latin verb is formed on superus (“upper, above”), from super (“above”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *super.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record of the transitive sense “to surpass, defeat” is a charter of Plasencia of 1218.^[2][3] Berceo already uses the intransitive sense “to be more than enough”: Sobraba bien un palmo por a vos non mentir “it was a good span too long, not to lie to you”.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose has all four main senses: “to surpass” in the Judizios de las estrellas (1254), “to be more than needed” and “to remain” in the General Estoria, and “to be superfluous” in an astronomical treatise of 1277.^[10] The sense “to surpass” lasted into the Golden Age;^[2][11] Nebrija in about 1495 still separates sobrar sobrepujando “to surpass” from sobrar lo que queda “to be left over”.^[2][11]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) gives first “to exceed” and then “to have more than is needed”, with the use for people who turn up where they are not wanted, the phrase ni sobró, ni faltó, ni hubo harto “it came out just right” and the proverb a quien no le sobra el pan, no crie can “whoever has no bread to spare should not keep a dog”.^[12] The Academy marked the transitive sense as old in 1884, and the DLE calls it obsolete.^[13][4]

In the River Plate the old transitive sense came back as “to treat someone with an air of superiority, mock”; the Argentine sobrador is someone who acts superior.^[2][14] In Ecuador and Peru the pronominal sobrarse means “to get conceited”, and Chilean usage has sobrar “to leave over”.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1218 – a charter of Plasencia uses sobrar for “to surpass, defeat”.^[2][3]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses it for “to be more than enough”; the noun sobra appears in the same years.^[3][9]
• 1254 – the Judizios de las estrellas use it for “to surpass”.^[10]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria uses it for what is left over.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin supero and supersum for its two senses.^[11]
• 1531 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[16]
• 1739 – Autoridades records the phrase ni sobró, ni faltó, ni hubo harto.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary marks the sense “to surpass” as old.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To surpass, exceed.^[4][12]
2. (intransitive) To be more than is needed: En la fiesta sobró mucha comida.^[4][1]
3. (intransitive) To be superfluous or in the way, often of a person who is not wanted somewhere: Me di cuenta de que en esa reunión yo sobraba.^[4][17]
4. (intransitive) To remain (quedar), be left over.^[4][1]
5. (impersonal) To be more than enough with someone or something: Con dos horas nos sobra para terminar.^[4]
6. (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay) To mock someone with a show of superiority.^[14]

Word family

• sobra
• sobrante

Related words

• superar
• sobre
• Latin superō

Usage notes

The set phrase ni sobró, ni faltó, ni hubo bastante (or harto) means that something was just enough for what was needed.^[4][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 277
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sobre
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. sobrar
5. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 753
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6483
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. sobrar
10. ^ a b c 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. sobrar
11. ^ 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. sobrar
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 126
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 981
14. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. sobrar
15. ^ Medina, José Toribio (1927), Chilenismos: apuntes lexicográficos, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Universo, p. 68
16. ^ 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. sobrar
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sobrar