soportar

Forms

soportar (first-person singular present soporto, first-person singular preterite soporté, past participle soportado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin supportō (“to carry up, convey; to endure”).^[2][3][1] The Breve diccionario dates it to the 15th century, and Wiktionary also places the first record there; the corpus has it from 1293.^[2][1][4]

The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under”) and portō (“to carry”).^[5][1] In classical Latin it meant to carry or convey supplies to a place; the sense “endure, bear” belongs to Late Latin.^[5][3][6] The Romance words of the same origin include Italian sopportare, Catalan soportar and French supporter.^[7][6] The English word support is related, but has a different meaning.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Castigos del rey don Sancho IV (1293; the corpus also has a 15th-century copy): „grand cargo es del omne auer a soportar a su muger en sus passiones & miserias” “it is a great burden for a man to have to bear with his wife in her sufferings and miseries”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the word is used both for putting up with something („esto non podian soportar”, 1344) and for bearing a load („tan grand carga soporta”, c. 1350).^[4] Nebrija gave suffero and supporto as its Latin equivalents, and Covarrubias glossed it as sufrir.^[8][9] Autoridades calls the physical sense “to carry on oneself” antiquated and gives the figurative “to suffer, tolerate”.^[10] The modern language uses both again: a wall supports a dome, a dam withstands the water, a patient bears pain.^[3][11]

In the Spanish of the United States it also means “to back, support (a project or a person)”, an anglicism after English to support.^[12] Judeo-Spanish has soportar “to bear, tolerate”.^[13]

Timeline

• 1293 – the Castigos del rey don Sancho IV.^[4]
• 1344 – the Crónica de 1344.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija.^[8]
• 1521 – first record in the Americas, in Cuba.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias.^[9]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades marks the physical sense as antiquated.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bear or hold up a load or weight: Estas vigas soportan todo el tejado.^[3][11][1]
2. To withstand a force without giving way.^[11]
3. To endure, tolerate, put up with: No soporto el ruido de la calle.^[3][1]
4. (United States) To back or support a project or person.^[12]
5. (computing) To provide support and updates for a product.^[15]

Word family

• soportable
• insoportable
• soporte

Related words

• suportación
• portar
• Latin supportō
• English support

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. portar
3. ^ a b c d e 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. soportar
4. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. soportar
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 418
9. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1308
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 158
11. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. soportar
12. ^ a b Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University
13. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC
14. ^ 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. soportar
15. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org