velar

velar¹ to keep watch, stay awake

Etymology tree of velar¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin vigil

Latin vigilō

French veiller

Spanish velar

From the same root · velar¹

Latin pervigil ← vigil

Latin vigilia ← vigil

French surveiller ← vigilō

Latin ēvigilō ← vigilō

Latin invigilō ← vigilō

Latin pervigilō ← vigilō

Latin vigilāns ← vigilō

Pronunciation

• /beˈlaɾ/, [beˈlaɾ]^[1]

Forms

velar (first-person singular present velo, first-person singular preterite velé, past participle velado)^[1]

Etymology

The word for keeping watch is inherited from Latin vigilō (“to stay awake; to be watchful”).^[2][3][4][1] The learned doublet is vigilar, first recorded in Autoridades; the nautical vigía came through Portuguese.^[2][3] Corominas notes that the verb has been in general use at every period and is common to all the Romance languages, and that very early the Vulgar Latin of Spain passed it to Basque begiratu.^[2][5]

The same Latin verb is French veiller, Occitan velhar and Catalan vetllar.^[5][6] The same word is also Portuguese vigiar, while velar is a loan from Spanish.^[5][6] The Latin verb is derived from vigil (“awake; watchman”), which belongs with vigeō (“to be active, flourish”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be strong, lively, awake”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Cantar de mio Cid (about 1140, known from a 14th-century copy).^[2][3] There it means to spend the night in prayer in a holy place, the vigil that preceded every grave act: before the judicial duel the champions de noche velaron las armas “kept vigil over their arms by night” (verse 3544).^[8]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish texts use the verb for staying awake and keeping watch: Berceo writes of one who finds his companions asleep and tells them que velasse, and Alfonso X writes of a stone that keeps a man uelar until he dies and of a bishop who keeps vigil in Saint Peter's church in Rome.^[9][10] Autoridades (1739) defines it as staying awake in the time meant for sleep, standing guard at night, and observing something closely.^[11]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 adds sitting up at night with the sick or the dead, working into the night, watching before the Blessed Sacrament, and the nautical sense of a rock showing above the water.^[12] The derivative velorio “wake for a dead person” is first recorded in Cuba in 1836 and is usual from Cuba and Puerto Rico to Argentina.^[2] In much of Latin America velar also means to watch others eat in the hope of being invited.^[13][14]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses velar for a night vigil.^[2][8]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for staying awake.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records velada, a night watch.^[2]
• 1526 – first record from the Americas, in Honduras.^[15]
• 1739 – Autoridades derives it from Latin vigilare; the learned vigilar is first recorded in the same dictionary.^[11][3]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary adds the senses “sit up with the sick or the dead” and the nautical one.^[12]
• 1836 – the derivative velorio is recorded in Cuba.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To keep watch or stand guard at night.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To sit up at night with a sick person.^[4][1]
3. (transitive) To keep vigil over a dead person, hold a wake: Velaron al abuelo en la casa del pueblo.^[4][1]
4. (transitive) To observe something closely.^[4]
5. (intransitive) To stay awake during the hours usually spent sleeping.^[4][1]
6. (intransitive) To go on working after the normal working day.^[4]
7. (intransitive) To look after something with care, usually velar por: Siempre veló por sus hermanos.^[4][1]
8. (intransitive) To take turns in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament (Santísimo).^[4]
9. (intransitive, nautical) Of a rock or other danger to shipping: to show above the surface of the water.^[4]
10. (intransitive, nautical) Of the wind: to keep blowing through the night.^[4]
11. (transitive, Latin America) To watch someone eat in the hope of being offered some.^[13][14]

Word family

• velada
• velador
• vela
• velorio
• velatorio
• desvelar
• desvelo
• duermevela

velar² to veil, cover

Etymology tree of velar²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin vēlum

English velum

Latin vēlō

Spanish velar

From the same root · velar²

Latin vēxillum ← vēlum

Latin revēlō ← vēlō

Latin vēlāmen ← vēlō

Latin vēlāmentum ← vēlō

Pronunciation

• /beˈlaɾ/, [beˈlaɾ]^[1]

Forms

velar (first-person singular present velo, first-person singular preterite velé, past participle velado)^[1]

Etymology

The word for veiling is inherited from Latin vēlō (“to cover, veil”), from vēlum (“veil; cloth; sail”).^{[16][1][17][18]} The same Latin verb is Italian velare and Occitan velar; in Spanish, Portuguese and Occitan it also came to mean “to marry”.^[19]

The Latin noun goes back to *wekslo-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *weg-, the root of Celtic words for weaving; the diminutive vexillum (“banner”) shows the older form of the stem.^[7] Spanish velo, inherited from the noun, is the base of the adjective described in the Usage notes.^[20]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Cantar de mio Cid (about 1140), in the sense “to marry”, from the rite of covering the bride and groom with a veil.^[20][17] Doña Elvira and doña Sol are given to the princes of Carrión: dolas por veladas a los ifantes de Carrión “I give them as wedded wives to the princes of Carrión”.^[9][20]

Semantic evolution

From the nuptial veiling the verb came to mean simply “to marry”;^[20][21] Nebrija has velarse el varón for the man's marrying and velarse la muger for the woman's.^[20][21] The noun velación, the veiling ceremony, is recorded from Covarrubias on.^[20][17] The Academy's dictionary of 1843 adds the poetic “to cover, hide”, and the 1884 edition gives the etymology and the senses “to cover with a veil”, “to celebrate the velaciones” and, figuratively, “to half-hide”.^[22][23] Photography later took the verb for a picture fogged by light, and painting for laying on glazes, veladuras.^[24][25]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses veladas for wedded wives.^[9][20]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records velarse “to marry”.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias has the noun velación.^[20][17]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary adds the poetic sense “to cover, hide”.^[22]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin velare and the sense “to cover with a veil”.^[23]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To cover or half-hide something, to soften or disguise it: La bruma velaba las montañas.^[16][1]
2. (transitive, photography, usually reflexive) Of an image on a plate or film: to be partly or wholly erased by light, to fog.^[16][1]
3. (transitive) To cover with a veil (velo).^[16][1]
4. (transitive) To celebrate the nuptial ceremony of the velaciones.^[16]
5. (transitive, painting) To apply glazes (veladuras).^[16]

Word family

• velación
• veladura