tratar

Forms

tratar (first-person singular present trato, first-person singular preterite traté, past participle tratado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote tractar beside tratar, as in Alfonso X's tractaremos.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin tractō (“to handle, touch; to manage, deal with”), taken from Latin in the Middle Ages.^[4][5] García de Diego calls the word learned, and the Wikcionario semi-learned.^[6][7] The popular outcome of the Latin verb is Asturian trechar (“to split fish for salting”).^[6]

The Latin verb is a frequentative formed from trahō (“to pull, drag”), the source of traer, with the suffix -tō.^[8][1][9] Its first sense was “to keep pulling, drag about”, from which came “to handle” and “to treat of”.^[8]

The same Latin verb gave Portuguese tratar, Galician tratar, French traiter and Italian trattare.^[1] The English word treat comes from the French verb.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb from Berceo and the Libro de Alexandre.^[4] In Berceo's Vida de San Millán (c. 1230, in an 18th-century copy) the monks „trataron de sue regla”, discussing their rule; the participle tractado is in the Fuero of Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250).^[10]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant to discuss a matter, in speech or in writing: Alfonso X's prose of 1277 promises to treat of the ways the instrument is used.^[3] The noun tratado “treatise” is already in Berceo.^[4]

In 1611 Covarrubias gave the Latin sense, to touch with the hand, then “to do business, buy and sell”, the source of tratante and trato, and “to have dealings with someone”.^[9] He also recorded trato doble “double dealing” and mujer de mal trato, an unchaste woman.^[9] The Autoridades added the use with an aim, trato de, “to strive for”, still the everyday sense of tratar de with an infinitive.^[11][1] The DLE now also has the medical sense, “to treat a disease”, and the chemical and technical one, “to subject to a process”.^[5] In Central America it can mean “to insult” or “to scold”.^[5][12]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the participle tractado in the Fuero of Zorita de los Canes.^[10]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo and the Libro de Alexandre.^[4][13]
• c. 1275 – first record of maltratar, in the Primera Crónica General.^[4]
• 1277 – Alfonso X's prose uses tractar for “to treat of”.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin tracto and contrecto, and records tratamiento, tratante and trato.^[14][4]
• 1525 – Mexico City, granjeemos e tratemos, for trading: the first record from the Americas.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records trato doble.^[9]
• 1925 – trata enters the Academy's dictionary.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To handle or use something physically.^[5]
2. (transitive) To manage or arrange a matter of business.^[5]
3. (transitive, also intransitive and pronominal) To have dealings with someone: No me trato con mis vecinos.^[5]
4. (mostly intransitive) To be in a romantic relationship with someone.^[5]
5. (transitive) To treat someone in a certain way, in deeds or words.^[5][1]
6. (transitive) To look after someone, especially with food and clothing.^[5]
7. (transitive, also intransitive) To discuss a matter; to be about something: El libro trata de la guerra.^[5][1]
8. (transitive) To address someone by a title: Lo trataban de usted.^[5][1]
9. (transitive) To call someone names: Me trató de mentiroso.^[5]
10. (transitive) To treat an illness with the right remedies.^[5][1]
11. (chemistry, technology) To subject a substance or material to the action of another or to a process.^[5][1]
12. (intransitive, with de and an infinitive) To try, attempt.^[1][7]
13. (El Salvador) To insult;^[12] (Nicaragua) to scold.^[5][12]

Word family

• trata
• tratamiento
• tratado
• tratante
• trato
• tratable
• maltratar

Related words

• tracto
• traer
• trazar
• trecho
• Latin tractō
• English treat

Usage notes

Tratarse de is used impersonally for “to be a matter of”: Se trata de un error.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. tratar
3. ^ a b c 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. tratar
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 575
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. tratar
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. tractare
7. ^ a b Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1346
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. tratar
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 343
12. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. tratar
13. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 787
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 424
15. ^ 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. tractar