suponer

Forms

suponer (first-person singular present supongo, first-person singular preterite supuse, past participle supuesto)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin suppōnō (“to put under; to substitute”), a learned word whose figurative sense “to assume” developed in Latin.^[2][3][4][5] Niermeyer records the Medieval Latin sense “to suppose, assume”.^[6] Wiktionary calls it inherited, but Corominas and DICCA-XV treat it as taken from Latin.^[1][2][7] It belongs to the family of poner, under which Corominas treats it.^[2][3][5]

The Latin verb is formed sub- (“under”) and pōnō (“to place, put”).^[8][1] The same word is Portuguese supor, Catalan suposar, French supposer and Italian supporre;^[1][9][10] English suppose is a cognate.^[1][9][10] That verb goes back to *pozinō, from *po (“off, away”) and *sinō (“to put in place”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is the participle sopuesta in the Libro de la açafeha (1277), one of Alfonso X's astronomical works, where an inclination of twelve degrees is taken as given: sea ell enclinamiento sopuesto .xij. grados.^[11][12] Juan Alfonso de Baena has the preterite supuso before 1435, and Diego de Valera the noun supuestos in logic about 1445.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Corominas found the verb only from Oudin's dictionary and Quevedo on, and noted that it is still missing from Nebrija, Palencia, the Quijote and Covarrubias; the BDELC dates it to 1607.^[2][3] DICCA-XV antedates it to 1452 in the CORDE and records Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492, which glosses Latin suppono as “to put underneath” and “to put one thing in place of another”.^[7] In the logic of the period it also meant “to stand for”: a text from Nueva Galicia of 1605 says that two names suponen por una misma cosa.^[13]

Autoridades (1739) gave three senses: to take something as given in order to pass to something else, to feign, and, intransitively, to have standing or authority in a community.^[14] The sense “to entail, mean” was added later; the DRAE of 2001 has it as traer consigo, and the current dictionary adds “to be worth, matter” (ella supone mucho para mí).^[15][4]

Timeline

• 1277 – the participle sopuesto in the Libro de la açafeha.^[11][12]
• before 1435 – Juan Alfonso de Baena uses the preterite supuso.^[11]
• 1452 – DICCA-XV's first record from the CORDE.^[7]
• 1605 – the logical sense “to stand for” in Nueva Galicia.^[13]
• 1607 – the BDELC's date, from Oudin's dictionary;^[13] suposición has the same date.^[3][2]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the senses “take as given”, “feign” and “have authority”.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin supponere.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To suppose, assume: to take something as true from the signs one has: Vi luz en su ventana y supuse que estaba en casa.^[4][1]
2. To assume for the sake of argument something that is not, or need not be, true: Supongamos que el tren llega tarde.^[4][1]
3. To take someone or something to be of a certain kind or in a certain place: Te suponía de vacaciones.^[4]
4. To entail, imply: Este cambio supone mucho trabajo.^[4][1]
5. To be worth, to matter, to have importance: Su apoyo supuso mucho para el equipo.^[4]

Noun

1. (colloquial) A supposition, in the phrase un suponer or es un suponer “just suppose, for example”.^[4][5]

Word family

• supuesto
• suponedor
• presuponer

Related words

• poner
• suposición
• supositorio
• Latin suppono
• English suppose

Usage notes

Suponer is conjugated like poner: supongo, supuse, past participle supuesto.^[1] Por supuesto means “of course”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 607
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. poner
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. suponer
5. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. suponer
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ 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. suponer
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 415
11. ^ 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. suponer
12. ^ a b 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. suponer
13. ^ a b c 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. suponer
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 189
15. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. suponer
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 998