vengar

Forms

vengar (first-person singular present vengo, first-person singular preterite vengué, past participle vengado)^[1] Berceo also has the older form vendegar, which is said to survive in La Rioja.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish vengar, inherited from Latin vindicō (“to claim; to set free; to avenge”).^[2][4][5][1] The more archaic Old Spanish vendegar occurs in Berceo.^[2][3] The learned doublet is vindicar, recorded in 1453 in Villena and again in Autoridades.^[2][4][1]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese vingar, Galician vingar, Catalan venjar, Occitan venjar, Old French vengier and Italian vendicare;^[3][6][1] Corominas calls it common to all the Romance languages.^[2][3][6][1]

The Latin verb was formed from vindex (“claimant; protector; avenger”).^[1][7] The OLD explains it as vim (“force”) (accusative) and dīcō (“to say”), and notes that it was originally of the third conjugation.^[8] Gómez de Silva calls the first element of unknown origin and traces the second to Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140), which has the verb with a personal object, véngalo (verse 1070), the pronominal Dios me faga vengar (2894) and the passive somos vengados “we are avenged” (2758).^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed the same through the history of the language: to take satisfaction for an offence or a harm.^[2][5] The Latin sense “claim” survives in devengar “to earn, accrue”, recorded from 1495: it grew out of the formula for the privilege of nobles, hijos dalgo notorios, de vengar quinientos sueldos, where vengar meant “to claim”.^[4][10] Covarrubias in 1611 cites the same title, hidalgo de vengar quinientos sueldos.^[11]

Moliner notes two constructions: the transitive one, whose object is either the offence or the person who suffered it (vengar a su padre), and the pronominal vengarse de or vengarse en.^[12] In the Canary Islands the verb, used of fruit trees, means “to set fruit”, recorded from 1756.^[13][14]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][4]
• 1220–1250 – first record of venganza, in Berceo.^[4][2]
• 1254 – the Judizios de las estrellas speak of one who wants to avenge himself.^[15]
• 1453 – Villena uses the learned doublet vindicar.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin ulciscor and vindico;^[16] vengador and devengar are first recorded.^[16][4]
• 1541 – first record from the Americas, in Michoacán.^[17]
• 1739 – Autoridades derives it from Latin vindicare.^[18]
• 1756 – the Canarian sense “set fruit” is recorded.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To avenge: to take satisfaction for an offence or harm, or on behalf of the person who suffered it: Juró vengar la ofensa que le hicieron a su familia.^[5][12][1]
2. (pronominal, vengarse) To take revenge, get even (de “on” or “for”): Se vengó de su rival años después.^[5][12]
3. (Canary Islands) Of fruit trees, to set fruit.^[13][14]

Word family

• vengador
• venganza
• vengativo
• devengar

Related words

• vindicar
• vindicta
• Latin vindicō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 770
3. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7186
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vengar
5. ^ a b c d 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. vengar
6. ^ a b 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. 9, 119
7. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. vengar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. vengar
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. vengar
11. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 1378
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vengar
13. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. vengar
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. vengar
15. ^ 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. vengar
16. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 429
17. ^ 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. vengar
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 445