sumergir

Forms

sumergir (first-person singular present sumerjo, first-person singular preterite sumergí, past participle sumergido)^[1] Corominas notes a form sumerger in Diego de Valera.^[2] The DEMel lists a preterite someryó in Alfonso X's Siete Partidas (1256–1265) under this verb.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin submergō (“to plunge under, sink”), a learned word.^[4][1][5] Corominas lists it among the learned words of the article on somorgujo, the diving bird, whose name comes from a Vulgar Latin derivative of mergus that was influenced by the same Latin verb.^[2][6] The popular verb of this family is somorgujar “to dive, duck under”, recorded from about 1280.^[2]

This verb is formed from Latin sub- (“under”) + mergō (“to plunge, immerse”).^[1][7] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *mezge/o- and Proto-Indo-European *mesg- (“to sink, wash”), with a cognate in Lithuanian mazgóti (“to wash”).^[8] From the same verb come emerger and inmerso.^[2]

Italian sommergere and Occitan somergir continue the Latin verb.^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record in a contemporary copy is Enrique de Villena's Epístola a Suero de Quiñones (1427–1428), of a city swallowed by the sea: Sumergióse la çibdad de Bais “the city of Bais sank”.^[10] Villena's Spanish Eneida of the same years has sumergirse en ella tres vezes “to plunge into it three times”, and Juan de Mena (c. 1439) writes of perils that sumergir las naves “sink the ships”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The CDH's earlier hits under this lemma, in Alfonso X's General Estoria (c. 1275–1280), are the popular verb somurguiar.^[10][2] Segura dates the learned verb to the second half of the 15th century and VOX to the 15th century, while Corominas gives only Autoridades and notes that Covarrubias does not have it.^[5][11][2]

Autoridades defined it in 1739 as putting something under water and added a figurative sense, to drag someone into other things, illustrated by la passion le sumergió en vicios “passion plunged him into vices”.^[12] The Academy's 1884 edition gave the figurative sense as abismar, hundir “to sink, overwhelm”, and Alemany (1917) widened the first sense to any liquid.^[13][14] The DLE adds the pronominal sense “to become absorbed in something”.^[4] From the Americas the word is recorded in 1588, in the New Kingdom of Granada.^[15]

Timeline

• 1427–1428 – Enrique de Villena writes Sumergióse la çibdad.^[10]
• c. 1439 – Juan de Mena uses it of ships sunk by the sea.^[10]
• 1588 – first record from the Americas, in the New Kingdom of Granada.^[15]
• 1739 – Autoridades enters it, as taken from Latin, with a figurative sense.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Latin etymon and the figurative sense “to sink, overwhelm”.^[13]
• 1917 – Alemany extends the definition to any liquid.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To put something under water or another liquid, to submerge: Sumergió el pincel en el agua.^[4][1]
2. (transitive, also pronominal) To sink or plunge someone into a state or situation (abismar, hundir).^[4][11]
3. (pronominal) To become absorbed in something, to concentrate one's attention on it: Se sumergió en la lectura toda la tarde.^[4][16]

Word family

• sumergible

Related words

• somorgujar
• somorgujo
• emerger
• inmersión
• sumir
• Latin submergō

Usage notes

Economía sumergida is the black or underground economy.^[17] The verb is spelt with ⟨j⟩ before a and o (sumerjo).^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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, 301
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sumergir
4. ^ 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. sumergir
5. ^ a b c 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. 422
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. somorgujo
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 663
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8380
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sumergir
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 182
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. 996
14. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1544
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
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sumergir
17. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. sumergir