vagar

vagar¹ be idle; leisure

Etymology tree of vagar¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin vacō

Spanish vagar

From the same root · vagar¹

Latin supervacāneus ← vacō

Latin vacātiō ← vacō

Latin vacīvus ← vacō

Latin vacuus ← vacō

Pronunciation

• /baˈɡaɾ/, [baˈɣ̞aɾ]^[3]

Forms

vagar (first-person singular present vago, first-person singular preterite vagué, past participle vagado)^[3]

Etymology

The word for having time and being idle is inherited from Latin vacō (“to be empty, to be free, to be idle”).^[4][5][1][3] Its learned doublet is vacar, first recorded in a document of 1229.^[4][5] Corominas finds the verb itself only in fairly late examples (Nebrija, the Comendador Griego in 1499), but the noun, meaning ease or leisure and very common in the Middle Ages from the Cid and Berceo on, shows that the verb is very old.^[4]

The Latin verb survives in the sense “to be idle, to have time” only in Portuguese, Catalan, Calabrian and Gascon.^[4][6] The Ibero-Romance forms are Portuguese vagar, Galician vagar and Asturian vagar.^[7][8]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *wako- (“empty”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁uh₂-ko-; its derivatives include vacuus (“empty”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) uses only the noun: andidieron de noch, que vagar non se dan “they rode by night, giving themselves no rest” (v. 434), and uos di vagar “I gave you time” (v. 3432).^[10][4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the noun meant rest, leisure and slowness, and the adverbial phrase de vagar meant “slowly, at leisure”: Alfonso X's book of games (1283) says a large form of chess is played very de uagar.^[4][11] The phrase later survived only in Portuguese.^[4][5]

The verb is recorded by Nebrija about 1495 as “to be idle”, and Covarrubias in 1611 gives no me vaga “I have no time for it”.^[12][4][13] In some passages it is hard to tell this verb from vagar “to wander”, as in the Guzmán de Alfarache (1599), where the Diccionario de Autoridades read “to go about idle”.^[4][14] The Academy long mixed the two: in 1884 it derived even the sense “to have time” from Latin vagari, and today it separates them.^[15][1]

The verb is still used in Salamanca for having free time, and in Asturian for having time to do something.^[16][8]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses the noun vagar “rest, time”.^[10][4]
• 1220–1250 – first record of the phrase de vagar “slowly” and of the adjective vagaroso “unoccupied, idle”.^[5]
• 1229 – the learned doublet vacar appears in a document.^[4]
• 1283 – Alfonso X's book of games uses de uagar “slowly”.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija defines the verb as “to be idle”.^[12]
• 1499 – the Comendador Griego uses the verb, in a passage quoted by the Diccionario de Autoridades.^[4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records no me vaga “I have no time”.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy records the noun with the phrase andar de vagar “to be idle”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To have enough time and opportunity to do something.^[1]
2. (intransitive) To be idle.^[1][3]

Noun

1. Free time that allows one to do something: No tengo vagar para leer estos días.^[1]
2. slowness, calm, unhurriedness: Comía con mucho vagar.^[1][18]

Word family

• vagaroso

vagar² wander

Etymology tree of vagar²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin vagus

French vague

Romanian vag

Italian vago

Latin vagor

English vagary

Spanish vagar

From the same root · vagar²

Latin montivagus ← vagus

Latin ēvagor ← vagor

Latin extrāvagāns ← vagor

Latin noctivagus ← vagor

Latin pervagor ← vagor

Latin vagābundus ← vagor

Pronunciation

• /baˈɡaɾ/, [baˈɣ̞aɾ]^[3]

Forms

vagar (first-person singular present vago, first-person singular preterite vagué, past participle vagado)^[3]

Etymology

The word for wandering is borrowed from Latin vagor (“to wander, to roam”).^{[2][1][3][19]} Corominas warns against confusing it with the homonym meaning to be unoccupied, which has a different origin.^[2] The Latin verb was taken into French vaguer in the 14th century and into Portuguese vagar, also recorded from the 14th century.^[20][21]

The Latin verb is formed from vagus (“roaming, wandering”).^[22][23] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *wago- and tentatively compares Germanic verbs meaning to totter, such as Old Norse vakka and Old High German wankōn.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas gives the Marqués de Santillana (second quarter of the 15th century) as the first record, and Nebrija records andar vagando about 1495.^[2][12] DICCA-XV reports a record in the CORDE corpus from 1376–1386.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) defines the verb as going about with no fixed destination, and by extension wandering through a deserted place without finding the way; it quotes Saavedra Fajardo on northern peoples who vagaban por el mundo.^[14] Covarrubias in 1611 still joined the senses, defining vagar as going idly from place to place.^[13] The Academy's 1817 edition adds the figurative sense of letting the mind wander from one thing to another.^[17] Of things, the verb also means to be loose or out of place.^[1][24]

Timeline

• 1376–1386 – a record in the CORDE corpus, reported by DICCA-XV.^[12]
• 1425–1450 – the Marqués de Santillana, the first record according to Corominas.^[2][12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records andar vagando with Latin vagor.^[25]
• 1528 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[26]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades derives the verb from Latin vagari.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds “to let the mind wander”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To wander or roam, going from place to place with no fixed destination: Pasó la tarde vagando por el puerto.^[1][3]
2. (intransitive) To wander through a place without finding the way or what one is looking for.^[1]
3. (intransitive, of a thing) To be loose, or out of its proper order or place.^[1][24]

Word family

• vagante