solevar

Forms

solevar (first-person singular present solevo, first-person singular preterite solevé, past participle solevado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sublevō (“to lift up from beneath, raise”).^[2][3][1] Corominas places it among the derivatives of leve, and its learned doublet is sublevar, recorded from 1683.^[2][1] Taken apart within Spanish, it looks like so- with levar, which is how Wiktionary describes its surface form.^[1]

The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under”) and levō (“to raise, lighten”),^[4] itself made from levis (“light, not heavy”).^[1] The same Latin verb lies behind Catalan sollevar,^[5] French soulever, which French remade after its own sous- and lever,^[6] and Italian sollevare.^[1]

Crossed with aliviar, it gave soliviar, recorded by Nebrija, and crossed with levantar it gave solevantar, first found in the Quijote in 1615.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the Latin–Spanish dictionary of Alfonso de Palencia (1490), which glosses the Latin arrigo with solievo “I lift up”.^[2] The first sense was thus the physical one, to raise something.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Diccionario de Autoridades the verb already means the same as solevantar or sublevar, and its quotation from Saavedra Fajardo speaks of the people who can either stir up the crowd (solevarla) or calm it, as in the revolts of Catalonia and Portugal.^[7] Terreros gives it simply as a synonym of sublevar.^[8] Salvá marked it as old in 1846, and in 1884 the Academy defined it only by solevantar.^[9][10] The 1899 edition gave its Latin source and the sense “to rouse to revolt”, and Alemany (1917) noted the pronominal use.^[11][12] The Academy's 2001 edition and Moliner list both senses, “to stir to revolt” and “to lift by pushing from below”.^[3][13] Echegaray and Barcia called it obsolete.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia uses solievo to gloss Latin arrigo.^[2]
• 1615 – the crossed form solevantar appears in the Quijote.^[2]
• 1683 – the learned doublet sublevar is first recorded.^[2]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades equates it with solevantar and sublevar.^[7]
• 1846 – Salvá marks the verb as old.^[9]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives its Latin source, sublevare.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stir up to revolt, to rouse a people or a group; also pronominal, to rise in revolt: Los capitanes solevaron a la tropa.^[3][13][1]
2. To lift something by pushing it from below: El agua del deshielo soleva las losas del camino.^[3][13][1]

Related words

• sublevar
• solevantar
• soliviar
• leve
• Latin sublevō
• French soulever

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. 3, 636
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. solevar
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. sollevar
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 141
8. ^ 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, 519
9. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1009
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 986
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 924
12. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1529
13. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. solevar
14. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 367
15. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 1057