surtir

Forms

surtir (first-person singular present surto, first-person singular preterite surtí, past participle surtido)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Catalan sortir, Occitan sortir or French sortir, which mean or have meant the same and also “to go out”.^[2][3] Corominas thinks that Spanish took it from these neighbouring languages, perhaps at different times and perhaps also from Italian, since it has no old roots in Castilian and its senses are more figurative than physical.^[2] DICCA-XV names Catalan, and Gómez de Silva and Bénaben French or Occitan.^[4][5][6] Prat Sabater counts it among the words for which the DCECH hesitates between Catalan, Occitan and French.^[7]

In those languages the word is of uncertain origin.^[2] It once meant “to cast lots, to foretell”, and probably comes mainly from Latin sortior (“to draw lots”), from sors (“lot”), in senses such as “to come out of a situation by lot”.^[2][3][8] Some senses, above all “to spurt”, are better explained from a derivative of the participle Catalan surt, Spanish surto and Italian sorto, of the verb surgir, a participle that must also have existed in early French.^[2][3][9] Wiktionary describes this as the influence of Vulgar Latin *surctīre, from surrēctus, the past participle of surgō (“to rise”).^[1] The Academy derives the verb from surto alone.^[10][11] García de Diego derives the sense “to provide” from sortiri and the sense “to come out” from Vulgar Latin *surtīre.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first certain record is in a translation of Jacques de Vitry's history of Jerusalem made after 1350, for darts that “bounce off” a hard hide: les non podian penetrar los dardos & surten dellos.^[14] Corominas notes a possible earlier example in the Calila and the sense “to go out” in the Leyes de Moros of the 14th or 15th century.^[2] Juan Fernández de Heredia uses it for darts that rebound and for fountains of fire that spring up.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to result, turn out” appears in Pulgar in 1486.^[2][3] The sense “to spurt, gush”, of water, struck deeper roots: Alonso de Palencia glossed Latin emanare as bullir o surtir in 1490, and the noun surtidor “fountain jet” followed about 1600.^[2][3] Covarrubias defined it as the rebound of something that has struck something else, as a stone from a wall.^[15] The sense “to supply, provide” is first recorded in 1590, and surtir efecto “to take effect” in Cervantes.^[2][3]

Autoridades gave “to jump upwards”, “to supply” and surtir efecto.^[16] Terreros recorded a naval sense, “to put into port”, which the Academy kept as a synonym of fondear in 1884.^[17][11] The sense “to rebound” is now obsolete in the standard language but lives in León and Asturias.^[10][18][2] In Mexico and Argentina it means, colloquially, “to beat someone up”.^[19][20]

Timeline

• after 1350 – the translation of Jacques de Vitry's history, the first certain record.^[14]
• 1376–1396 – Fernández de Heredia uses it for rebounding darts.^[14]
• 1486 – Pulgar uses it for “to result”.^[2][3]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia uses it for water gushing.^[2][3]
• 1562 – first record in the Americas, in Puebla.^[21]
• 1590 – first record of “to supply”.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as “to rebound”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from surto.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To supply, provide someone with something: La tienda nos surte de pan cada mañana.^[10][22][1]
2. (intransitive) Of water: to spurt, gush or spring out, especially upwards.^[10][22][1]
3. (obsolete) To jump, rebound.^[10][15]
4. surtir efecto: to take effect, produce the intended result.^[22][16][1]
5. (Mexico, Argentina, colloquial) To beat someone up.^[19][20]

Word family

• surtido
• surtidor
• resurtir

Related words

• surto
• surgir
• surtida
• French sortir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 342
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. surtir
4. ^ 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. surtir
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 665
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. surtir
7. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 33
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 8, 100
10. ^ 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. surtir
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 999
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6244
13. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6505
14. ^ 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. surtir
15. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1311
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 191
17. ^ 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, 559
18. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. surtir
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. surtir
20. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. surtir
21. ^ 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. surtir
22. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. surtir